Some say 10-year-old Clara Lazen was just randomly arranging the sticks and balls of a molecule building toy during a science class assignment at her elementary school in Kansas City, Missouri. Clara disagrees. The design of her unique new molecule, which was later named tetranitratoxycarbon, was deliberate, she said. The pieces “fit more together,” she explained, “and look better. All the holes have to be filled in for it to be stable.” In any case, experts confirmed that Clara's creation is a chemical that could theoretically exist but has never been seen before. If a lab can synthesize Clara’s new molecule, it may be useful as an explosive, or it could be used for energy storage.
A new family of atoms: