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Who knew buckyballs could kick the tiger out of your tank?

Imagine the super-dense liquid metallic hydrogen at the center of Jupiter. Then picture that same molten mass powering your beloved Chevy down the road. This ain’t your father’s old mobile! Scientists are looking for a cost-effective way to store hydrogen and make it the transportation fuel for the long haul. Enter the buckyball, a soccer ball–shaped molecule made up of 60 carbon atoms, which was discovered by Rice University researchers some 20 years ago. Using a computer model, Rice materials scientist Boris Yakobson and his research team were able to simulate just how well the carbon bonds inside buckyballs and their larger siblings, fullerenes, hold up to increasing densities of hydrogen atoms. Turns out, they bested the target for hydrogen-powered cars set by the federal government by a comfortable margin. Good-bye gas hogs! Hello hydrogen hot rods!