Stony Brook University's Artem Oganov on the discovery of a new superhard phase of boron, a major advance described in 'Nature' and publicized in the New York Times and -- believe it or not -- Conan O'Brien. Led by Oganov, a research team has discovered a new phase that shows charge transfer from the B2 to the B12 clusters, which thus play the same roles as cations and anions in normal ionic salts.
