Is anything better than a fancy diamond? Actually, yes: a "fancy, intense" diamond. And according to one official scale of superlatives used to grade diamonds, even better than a "fancy, intense" ...

Scientists have found the first case of an ionic crystal consisting of just one chemical element -- boron. This is the densest and hardest known phase of this element. The new phase turned out to be a ...

Boron is not a word that comes to mind over small talk. You may have never even uttered the name of a rather uninteresting metal. But some of the chemical compounds that contain boron are very cool.

Unlike its neighbours on the right-hand side of the periodic table, boron barely forms an anion. A new trick has been established that allows it to do so, enabling a highly unusual complex to be ...

A new study from Rice University predicts the existence and stability of another "buckyball" consisting entirely of boron atoms. The research shows a stable structure for a molecular sphere of 80 ...

Each time you watch sport on a flatscreen television, or send a message by touching your smartphone screen, give thanks to an unsung hero of the periodic table: boron.

High-pressure tactics have uncovered a never-before-seen form of the element boron. The new entity has significant ionic character, a first for a material made from a single element. "Boron seems to ...

Lai-Sheng Wang (middle) and graduate students Wei-Li Li (left) and Zachary Piazza (right) holding a model of "Borospherene" - Credit: Wang Lab/Brown University Nanotechnology experienced a huge surge ...

Buckyballs (or Buckminsterfullerene), the soccer ball-like structures of 60 carbon atoms, have a new playmate. Previously only theorized, researchers from Brown University in the US and Shanxi and ...