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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
