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Tag archives: graphene
Safe graphene, Martian mollycoddling, mathematical tales and more
The “Telescope names” comic from xkcd. (Randall Munroe/Creative Commons)
By Tushna Commissariat
Just when we thought that it couldn’t possibly have any more practical applications, everybody’s favourite “wonder material” graphene is going to be used to develop “stronger, safer, and more desirable condoms”. Thanks to a Grand Challenges Explorations grant of £62,123 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, scientists at the University of Manchester will use graphene to develop new “composite nanomaterials for next-generation condoms, containing graphene”. Unsurprisingly, the story made all the national newspapers with the BBC, the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Independent all having their say. The Guardian also noted that industrial graphene-producer Applied Graphene Materials’ shares jumped by 40% during its stock-market debut, the day before the above story broke. You can read more about graphene’s many potential applications on page 50 of Physics World’s anniversary issue, a free PDF download of which is available here.
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From the dark universe to graphene
By James Dacey
In just over an hour’s time, I’ll be hopping on my bike and cycling to the top of a steep hill where the Nobel laureate Andre Geim will be found practising his lines. Sir Andre Geim is delivering a talk at the University of Bristol as part of a series of lectures to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Physics World. In Random Walk to Stockholm, Geim is going to be discussing his work on graphene that led to him sharing the 2010 Nobel prize with Konstantin Novoselov. He will also try to explain why this “wonder material” is attracting so much attention today.
For the small percentage of you who live close to Bristol, there are still tickets left for the event, which starts at 18:00 local time (by rippstein). I am planning to publish an audio recording of the lecture on this website after the event, for those of you who cannot attend tonight.
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Nobel laureate Andre Geim profiled on BBC radio
Nobel laureate Andre Geim. (Courtesy: University of Manchester)
By Hamish Johnston
I thoroughly enjoyed a recent BBC Radio 4 profile of Andre Geim of the University of Manchester, who shared the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics. In the 13 minute broadcast, which is available for download, Geim and several admirers talk about the passion for doing quirky fundamental research that led to his co-discovery of graphene.
There is even the bold suggestion from one of Geim’s colleagues that there might be another Nobel in the Russian-born physicist.
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Can Andy Murray give graphene a boost?
By Matin Durrani
Novak Djokovic uses a Head tennis racket containing graphene.
It has become a cliché to call graphene the “wonder material” because of its incredible physical and electronic properties – this 2D honeycomb of carbon atoms is not only the strongest ever discovered, but also the stiffest, being able to sustain a current density a million times that of copper.
Having such great attributes is all well and good if you’re a researcher who’s fascinated by the subtleties of graphene’s electronic properties such as its lack of a band gap – but what if you’re a hard-nose business executive? Graphene will only be any good if it can help you to sell a product that’s somehow better than what’s already on the market and if it can at also make the company money at the same time.
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The Physics World 2013 Focus on Nanotechnology is now out
New for 2013.
By Matin Durrani
There’s just one purpose to this blog entry – to get you to check out the latest Physics World focus issue on nanotechnology.
Created in collaboration with our sister website nanotechweb.org, the new focus issue, which you can read in digital-magazine format simply by clicking this link, is packed with great content including a feature by Nobel-prize winning physicist Kostya Novoselov, who shared the 2010 prize with Andre Geim for their work on graphene.
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Are patents hampering the commercialization of graphene?
By Matin Durrani
It has become almost a cliché to call graphene the “wonder material”, but this super-thin 2D honeycomb array of carbon atoms boasts some enviable electronic and mechanical properties. Apart from being the strongest material ever measured, graphene is also the stiffest and has an electrical current density a million times that of copper. Hardly surprising then that companies and institutes around the world have been stumbling over themselves to carry out research into this material, which was first isolated through Nobel-prize-winning work at the University of Manchester in the UK in 2004.
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