04-25-2014, 04:09 PM
I am in danger of committing the terrible faux pas of adding seriousness where it doesn't belong, but I do know something about graphene. But for more levity - go to the bottom paragraph.
There seem to be two main pushes on graphene research that I know about - neither of which involve packaging beer.
It's very thin (by definition) and electrons move very easily once set on the move - so it has potential as the material that will replace silicon to allow Moore's Law type improvements to continue. Of course over the years there have been many "materials that will replace silicon" and up to now they all remain in the future tense.
More physicsy-geeky, electrons in graphene have a very unusual relationship between their energy and momentum - the same as photons (light) rather than regular electrons. So, there are all sorts of weird light-like phenomena you might be able to induce in the electronic behaviour of graphene. Very cool for understanding basic theories of how matter works - not so clear if it leads to a direct technological application (though plenty of suggestions).
BUT, likely of much more general interest is the background of the guy who figured out how to isolate individual sheets of graphene, Andre Geim (along with his ex-student Novosolev). Geim is of note in physics circles for being the only person ever to have won both the Nobel Prize, for isolating graphene (2010) and an Ig-Nobel Prize for magnetically levitating a frog (2000).
Video of levitated frog: http://www.ru.nl/hfml/research/levitation/diamagnetic/Â (click on top right picture)
Geim's wikipedia bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Geim
Ig Nobel Prize http://www.improbable.com/ig/
List of Ig Nobel Prize Winners http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/Â (funny in a very geeky way)
There seem to be two main pushes on graphene research that I know about - neither of which involve packaging beer.
It's very thin (by definition) and electrons move very easily once set on the move - so it has potential as the material that will replace silicon to allow Moore's Law type improvements to continue. Of course over the years there have been many "materials that will replace silicon" and up to now they all remain in the future tense.
More physicsy-geeky, electrons in graphene have a very unusual relationship between their energy and momentum - the same as photons (light) rather than regular electrons. So, there are all sorts of weird light-like phenomena you might be able to induce in the electronic behaviour of graphene. Very cool for understanding basic theories of how matter works - not so clear if it leads to a direct technological application (though plenty of suggestions).
BUT, likely of much more general interest is the background of the guy who figured out how to isolate individual sheets of graphene, Andre Geim (along with his ex-student Novosolev). Geim is of note in physics circles for being the only person ever to have won both the Nobel Prize, for isolating graphene (2010) and an Ig-Nobel Prize for magnetically levitating a frog (2000).
Video of levitated frog: http://www.ru.nl/hfml/research/levitation/diamagnetic/Â (click on top right picture)
Geim's wikipedia bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Geim
Ig Nobel Prize http://www.improbable.com/ig/
List of Ig Nobel Prize Winners http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/Â (funny in a very geeky way)