For more than a century, scientists have been saying the same thing: It’s impossible to create a water-free disordered magnesium carbonate. It’s too difficult. You’ll never amount to anything! Well, suck it, haters: Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden have unveiled a super-absorbent version of magnesium carbonate that breaks the world record for surface area and water absorption.
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Like so many other great discoveries, Upsalite was actually an accident. The team at Uppsala was attempting to create a similar material using a reaction chamber at their lab. After a wild friday night of reaction chamber antics, they accidentally left some material inside the machine. When they returned, they found a material unlike any they’d ever seen.
via Gizmodo
