[Martyr2]

So they had an article on CNN today about Graphene. A new material which is very conductive, very thin (a single atom thick), reacts to light, flexible and can be made transparent. What do you think of this "Miracle Material"? How long do you think it will take to come to the masses? Have you seen the stuff in action? Could this be the beginning of invisibility? If you cloak yourself in flexible electronics that can react to light who knows!

'Miracle material' chips away at silicon dominance

Sounds pretty promising. I hope it comes soon!

[Kilorn]

I can't get over the fact that they keep calling it a "two-dimensional material". Everything that exists has 3 dimensions of space. Height, Width, and Depth. No matter how small, including only the thickness of a single atom, it still has all three dimensions.

Beyond my petty annoyance with their wording, I think this material could lead to some truly amazing technological breakthroughs. The only real question that I have is how well does it hold up to heat? Current processors, made from silicon, can only handle around 300*F. I heard talk a few years ago about replacing silicon processors with processor made from lab created diamonds that could withstand 3000*F temperatures. The strength of the material is very interesting in my opinion as well. They claim it is stronger than steel, which isn't such a bold claim as it might sound. Spider's silk is also stronger than steel, but cannot, with today's technology, be gathered in quantities high enough to make use of that strength. This material on the other hand is just a sheet of tightly packed carbon atoms, which are literally everywhere. I can see a great use for this stuff in armor for military personnel as well as vehicles and possibly even shielding for future space flight vehicles. With something that is that strong, and that light could drastically reduce the amount of fuel necessary to reach escape velocity.

[mojo666]

Kilorn, on 13 October 2011 - 11:52 AM, said:

I can't get over the fact that they keep calling it a "two-dimensional material". Everything that exists has 3 dimensions of space. Height, Width, and Depth. No matter how small, including only the thickness of a single atom, it still has all three dimensions.

In chemistry, the dimension refers to the arangement of the atoms in a molecule. Since all the atoms of graphene can be arranged in one layer, it is considered 2-dimensional. Something like methane, which is 5 atoms arranged in a tetrahedral, would be 3 dimensional.

[Shane Hudson]

I have been following this for quite some years now (and it is so nice that the media have finally gotten hold of it!)... our (England) government has just given £50m (~$78m) towards the research of it and more specifically, getting it into production.

If I had unlimited money, I would have graphene everything! I do truly believe it is the material we have been waiting for. We are not in the "Space Age" anymore.

[smohd]

This reminds me THE STAR GATE ATLANTIS movie, looks like we are going to shield Earth from Raith as what DR. Mckay and his team was doing in Atlantis.

But it is really nice invention, I cant wait to see what will happen to its use

[Programmist]

Read about this in a scientific journal many years back and have been looking forward to seeing it applied towards making smaller, faster, and cooler-running computers.

[Sayid Ahmed]

Since it was researched by people at Manchester (where I study) i hope it kicks off as a new revolutionary material. the UK really needs some more high-tech industry to kick off anyway.