Thursday, October 7, 2010

Leaders of wonder material graphene win Nobel Prize in Physics

Graphene is a lately discovered material that is thinner, stronger and more conductive to electricity and heat than anything else known. The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, and also the $1.4 million dollar prize that goes with it, were awarded to a duo of Russian researchers who discovered graphene. Physics labs globally are experimenting with graphene in ways that may result in unprecedented technological leaps in computers, televisions and unique new components.

Discovering with Scotch tape: Graphene

Graphene was discovered by new Nobel laureates Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at Manchester University. The New York Times reports that while investigating the electrical properties of graphite, they tried peeling layers of it off with Scotch tape. A single atom thick of carbon is what they ended up with. A sheet of Graphene on top of a coffee cup with the weight of a truck on pencil point will be supported , says the NY Times. This is because Graphene is so extremely thin and strong. Graphene is able to conduct electricity and create a ton of heat which may lead it to replacing silicon in computer chips. It would also be able to modify physics, change the way flat screen TVs are made and even become a pollution monitoring material.

Graphene could alter everyday life

Cable News Network talked to Geim who said graphene will probably change everything in life. It will alter as much as finding plastic changed things. Atoms are arranged like chicken wire into a hexagonal array of carbon which ends up making it a two-dimensional material. Three dimensional graphite and graphene are “fundamentally different” from one an additional because graphene is flexible. According to Graphene Industries, which works closely with Geim, two-dimensional materials like graphene give scientists access to materials of any dimension, including zero-dimensional atoms and one-dimensional nanowires. Geim told Cable News Network that it is extremely hard to describe the range of possible graphene applications.

What exactly is the next thing graphene will transform

Graphene is a common substance throughout the world. Many laboratories are experimenting with it. Graphene reacts as though it were a magnetic field when it is stretched, PC World accounts scientists at the University of California, Berkeley finding. Parts of electronic devices may be built differently if this substance is being added into it. Science accounts that researchers in South Korea have figured out how to grow graphene in sheets large enough for making touch-screen displays twice as durable as the current technology.

Info from

New York Times

nytimes.com/2010/10/06/science/06nobel.html?_r=1 and hp

CNN

edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/05/sweden.nobel.physics/

PC World

pcworld.com/article/206931/graphene_nanobubbles_could_mean_more_powerful_gadgets.html?tk=hp_new



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