They had discovered the "hungry catalyst." Unlike any catalyst before it, R.G. didn't just lower activation energy. It harvested entropy. The tensile carbon lattice acted like a molecular Maxwell's demon, selectively vibrating at frequencies that ripped electrons from unwanted bonds (like C-S in thiophene or C-C in coke precursors) and used that released energy to "shake loose" the very products that would otherwise stick to its surface.
The accident happened on a Thursday. A post-doc, distracted by an alert about a rising helium-3 market, fed RG-47 a feedstock laced with trace amounts of thiophene—a sulfur compound that was supposed to be an instant poison. Instead of dying, the catalyst screamed . Thermal sensors spiked, then dropped below ambient. When they cracked open the reactor, the RG-47 wasn't coked. It was clean . More than that, it had converted the thiophene into a small yield of pure, metallic sulfur and cyclopentane—a reaction thermodynamics said was impossible at that temperature. r g catalyst
But R.G. Catalyst had a secret flaw. It wasn't just catalytic; it was adaptive . They had discovered the "hungry catalyst