[5]Radialene Fills In A Missing Hydrocarbon Gap
Radialenes are a unique class of star-shaped cyclic hydrocarbons that have double bonds radiating out from each carbon in the ring. Prior to this year, chemists had made the three-, four-, and six-membered ring versions of these polyenes, but never [5]radialene—it had always been too unstable. A research team including Emily G. Mackay and Michael S. Sherburn of Australian National University and Michael N. Paddon-Row of the University of New South Wales developed a synthetic strategy to make the missing link for the first time (J.

Dr Colin Jackson, from the ANU Research School of Chemistry, has received the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's 2015 Rennie Memorial Medal for his work in Chemical Science research.

While scientists have not yet invented a flux capacitor to enable time travel, today’s capacitor is the fundamental building block of any gadget that you can imagine. However, capacitors on the market don’t really stack up to meet our modern needs. ANU researchers are partnering with one of the top manufacturers in China to develop a capacitor that could be a game changer.
Have you ever wondered why your laptop computer works well for a few years, but then starts to give up the ghost? The main culprit is the capacitor—when that fails, the laptop fails.