Science

Forget Graphene, Silicene Is Here To Blow Your Mind

Remember how graphene — the single-atom thick layer of carbon — was so slick it was going to change everything? Well it looks like silicene is here to steal the spotlight. Reachers have just made the first sheet of single-atom thick silicon.


March 15, 2012
Science

Scientists Manipulate Electrons Into Material Never Seen On Earth

Stanford scientists have created designer electrons that behave as if they were exposed to a magnetic field of 60 Tesla — a force 30 per cent stronger than anything ever sustained on Earth. The work could lead to a revolution in the materials that make everything from video displays to aeroplanes to mobile phones.


August 6, 2011
Science

How Ordinary Cookies Can Be Morphed Into Incredible Graphene

Next time you’re inhaling an entire box of Girl Scout shortbread cookies, just think of the potential you’re wasting: a full $US15 billion worth of graphene. At least, that’s the estimate given by a team of Rice University researchers working on a dare.


June 17, 2011
Science

Nokia Banks On Wonder-Material Graphene

I could make some glib remark about how Nokia’s grabbing onto sexy-material graphene like it’s a lifebuoy, but really, I can only applaud anyone who’s pumping money into research of this harder-than-nails material.


June 10, 2011
Science

IBM Researchers Build Wonder Material Integrated Circuit Smaller Than A Grain Of Salt

IBM researchers have created the first graphene-based integrated circuit constructed on a wafer of silicon, in a setup that’s smaller than a grain of salt. The circuit is a broadband frequency mixer, which can operate up to a decent 10GHz.


April 5, 2011
Science

When Electronics Cool Themselves Off

Graphene is a thin sheet of carbon atoms that bond to their neighbours to form a chicken-wire-type lattice precisely one atom thick. That doesn’t sound too spectacular, but it has scientists in a tizzy.


February 28, 2011
Gadgets

Bendable Graphene Batteries Take A Page From Gumby

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) may be on the cusp of creating something special: Bendable batteries that could have better performance than their stiff, inflexible cousins.


December 8, 2010
Science

DIY Atom-Thick Graphene Sheet With Just A Pencil And Tape

Graphene is a special form of carbon that’s a only single atom thick. One of the world’s only two-dimensional objects, it won its designers the Nobel Prize. And you can make your very own sheet with a couple everyday objects.


November 18, 2010
Science

Stronger-Than-Diamonds Graphene Can Be Made From Sugar

It’s been discovered that you create the very same substance those Ruskis won the Nobel prize for out of household sugar. Borrow a cup from your neighbour, and get baking the world’s hardest substance. No, not your mum’s scones. Graphene.


October 27, 2010
Science

Water Plus Graphene Will Soon Equal Computers

Graphene was hailed as a miracle substance. Easy to make and cheap to acquire, it could help with anything from DNA sequencing to power production. Now, thanks to water and physics, it could soon be turned into a computer.