What are the potential applications? I read the article, it was pretty interesting but I only saw things that would be odd to an expert (which I am not). Sure it’s a cool shape, but what does it do?
It seems that it was evidence for theoretical approaches to predict molecule bond behavior. The author mentions DFT, which I assume stands for Density Functional Theory.
Yes
Not sure about practical applications, its an advancement in basic science since its never been made before (and its hard to make) and there were interesting theoretical predictions made regarding the bonding configuration that were verified with measurements upon the successful synthesis.