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Flat-Faced Fullerenes Discovered

UCLA neuroscientists have found the first new class of convex, equilateral polyhedra with icosahedral symmetry in 400 years.

Stan Schein and James Gayed found molecular cages with flat faces consisting of 12 regular pentagons and up to 480 irregular hexagons.

Because the polyhedra resemble spheres when the number of vertices is large, they may be useful in such applications as redesigning golf ball dimpling patterns.

Read Science News's coverage.

Start Date: 
Tuesday, April 1, 2014