New Type of Carbon Is Harder and Brighter Than Diamonds

"This new phase is very unique," said study co-author Jagdish Narayan, a materials scientist at North Carolina State University. In this subterranean pressure cooker, carbon dioxide molecules were crushed with pressures of about 725,000 lbs. per square inch (5 million kilopascals) and heated to a sweltering 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 degrees Celsius), according to a 2012 study in the journal Nature.