bonding layer. Cultural references A Borazon drill is used in the TV series and film Quatermass and the Pit. In this story an alien spacecraft is unearthed in London and the drill is used in an attempt to open a sealed bulkhead. The shell of the object is so hard that even the Borazon drill makes no impression, and when the attempt is made, vibrations cause severe distress in people around the object. In Ivan Yefremov's novel Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale (written 1954–1956, published Jan 1957) boron nitride named borazon is routinely used in sublight engine parts and spaceship surface coating. In Randall Garrett's's short story "Thin Edge" (Analog, Dec 1963) a fictional borazon-tungsten cable of extraordinary tensile strength is a central plot element. The cable is developed by asteroid miners for a tow-rope for hauling asteroids. The protagonist cuts through cell bars and booby-traps his room using a single strand of the wire, similar to a monomolecular wire. See also Abrasive machining References External links Discovering a Material That's Harder Than Diamond by Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. Boron in Materials Technology Borazon(R) CBN Synthetic materials Superhard materials Boron compounds Nitrides