Graphene Confirmed as the World’s Strongest Known Material

The scientific community has been praising graphene as some sort of miracle material for years now–even going so far as to say that it could eventually replace silicon. Well, graphene can now add another statistic to its impressive resume now that researchers have confirmed it as the strongest material ever tested.

Two engineering professors at Columbia University tested graphene’s strength at an atomic level by indenting a perfect sample of the material with a sharp probe made of diamond. The results confirm what many had suspected all along–and that will go a long way to bolster the case that graphene would be able to handle the heat produced in future ultrafast processors. [Technology Review]