Number 248 (Story #2), November 10, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein CHEMISTRY CAN CHANGE UNEXPECTEDLY AT HIGH PRESSURES. Oxygen and hydrogen usually react explosively to form water in a process that helps to put astronauts in orbit. But at a pressure of 7.6 GPa (76,000 atm), a H2-O2 mixture in a diamond anvil press (at room temperature) was found to remain stable in experiments carried out at the University of Paris. The researchers, whose lab sustained a damaging explosion in one test, believe the high-pressure alloy might lead to a new form of energy storage (one example: a new rocket fuel) and could serve as a model for the interiors of Jupiter-like planets. (Paul Loubeyre and Rene LeToullec, Nature, 2 November 1995.)