3 ms·

"New Form of Carbon is Stronger Than Graphene and Diamond" "Chemists have calculated ... carbyne, should be stronger and stiffer than any known material" So wh

• acadien 13y ago
  The study is entirely based on first principles simulations. So even though these may be the most accurate calculations we can possibly carry out... they still may not be experimentally validated (for any number of reasons). In this case they cannot state anything as 100% truth as it has not (necessarily) been tested through experiment. "should" is appropriate.
• lutusp 13y ago
  > So which is it, 'it is stronger' or 'it should be stronger'? That language simply acknowledges that to date, the work is mostly theoretical -- they don't have enough material to perform empirical measurements. Another way to say it is that it's theoretically stronger, and it will probably be stronger in reality as well.