Although fullerenes - spherical molecules made entirely of carbon - were first found in the laboratory, they have since been found in nature, formed in fissures of the rare mineral shungite. Since laboratory synthesis of fullerenes requires distinctive conditions of temperature and pressure, this discovery should give geologists a test case for evaluating hypothesis about the state of the Earth's crust at the time these naturally occurring fullerenes were formed. Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument?
A. Confirming that the shungite genuinely contained fullerenes took careful experimentation
B. Some fullerenes have also been found on the remains of a small meteorite that collided with a spacecraft.
C. The mineral shungite itself contains large amounts of carbon, from which the fullerenes apparently formed.
D. The naturally occurring fullerenes are arranged in a previously unknown crystalline structure
E. Shungite itself is formed only under distinctive conditions.
OA is D
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Hi race2mba,
This CR prompt asks us to weaken an idea, so we need to know what the idea is...
1) We learn about fullerenes and how they were first found in a lab.
2) They have since been found in nature (meaning that they were probably occurring naturally for a long time, even before the scientists found them in the lab).
3) Scientists assume that the conditions that they used in the lab to discover fullerenes match conditions that existed in the past when the fullerenes initially occurred.
This argument assumes that fullerenes in the lab are the same as fullerenes in nature (including how they were created). To weaken this prompt, we will need an answer that says that the fullerenes from the lab ARE NOT THE SAME as the ones in nature.
The only answer that describes how the fullerenes are not the same is the D.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
This CR prompt asks us to weaken an idea, so we need to know what the idea is...
1) We learn about fullerenes and how they were first found in a lab.
2) They have since been found in nature (meaning that they were probably occurring naturally for a long time, even before the scientists found them in the lab).
3) Scientists assume that the conditions that they used in the lab to discover fullerenes match conditions that existed in the past when the fullerenes initially occurred.
This argument assumes that fullerenes in the lab are the same as fullerenes in nature (including how they were created). To weaken this prompt, we will need an answer that says that the fullerenes from the lab ARE NOT THE SAME as the ones in nature.
The only answer that describes how the fullerenes are not the same is the D.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
