Costing £106,000,000 a Gram, It's Not Gold or Diamond - Meet One of The World's Most Expensive Materials
One of the world's most expensive items sells for more than £106,000,000 per gram, and it's probably not what you'd expect.
When you think of the most expensive items in the world, you probably imagine platinum, gold or diamonds, the Telegraph reports.
But one of the most expensive substances in the world is actually a powder – and just a single gram can cost more than 100,000,000 euros.
The substance is called Endohedral Fullerene based on nitrogen atoms. The material is essentially a cage of carbon atoms with a nitrogen atom inside.
The substance has the potential to create very small and highly accurate atomic clocks that scientists believe could even be carried in your pocket.
“Imagine a miniature atomic clock that you can wear on your smartphone. This is the next revolution for mobile phones", said Dr. Kyriakos Porphyrakis.
An atomic clock measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. The first atomic clock was invented in 1949 by scientists working in Washington DC, but, at the time, it was hardly better than existing electronic clocks.
But atomic clocks have improved at an astonishing rate, and in 2024 the best versions are billions of times more accurate than any electric clock.
Read the original article on Telegrafi.