Carbon-60 fullerenes–cagelike molecules of 60 carbon atoms (C60)–are easily coaxed
into polymer chains. Trying to do the same for less-symmetrical C70 fullerenes has
proven so frustrating, however, that some scientists have speculated that it can’t
be done.
Never say never. In the July 27 Science, Alexander V. Soldatov, now of Harvard
University, and researchers in Germany, Russia, Austria, and Sweden describe how