Explosive goes boom, but not too soon

Leavening a volatile new material with TNT yields safer substance

Look out, Road Runner: There’s a new explosive for Wile E. Coyote’s arsenal. By reining in a supersensitive explosive with good old-fashioned TNT, chemists have created a new compound that can be stored and transported safely and then quickly converted to an activated, superexplosive form.

BANG-UP JOB By combining two existing explosives, TNT and CL-20, scientists have created a new crystal (pictured) that’s relatively safe to transport and can be quickly converted to an explosive that detonates easily.