The thinnest, strongest material gets a Nobel Prize

[radhak]

Physics Nobel Honors Work on Ultra-Thin Carbon

Graphene ... is a single atom thick. It is not only the thinnest material in the world, but also the strongest: a sheet of it stretched over a coffee cup could support the weight of a truck bearing down on a pencil point.

A funny way of specifying strength instead of PSI (i guess that's their 'layman' language), but that is intimidating strength : now I know what material is used for the costumes of all the JLA members (Superman, Batman, etc)...

[atgcpaul]

Being in the technician "caste" of science, I sure can empathize with that poor
tech who showed them the Scotch tape method but will never bask in the
glory of that Nobel because he's missing a few letters behind his name (PhD).

Regardless. Big picture was never his but an honorable mention would have
been nice.

There's been so much made out of buckeyballs and nanotubes but nothing
really has come to market yet. Hopefully something cool and revolutionary
will come of this and it won't be better 3D TVs but something really game
changing like a containment field for a super power cell.

I wonder, though, why if a sheet of graphene is so strong that I keep
breaking my pencils which is composed of many, many sheets of it.

[All Thumbs]

Well I hope before they start mass producing the stuff that they figure out a way to recycle it first.

Otherwise we're going to have a bunch of indestructible stuff around.

[woodturner]

I sure can empathize with that poor
tech who showed them the Scotch tape method

It was apparently the Ph.Ds that developed that method, according to the article and the research paper. Apparently not something a tech developed - the tech would be cited in that case.

[cwithboat]

Hopefully something cool and revolutionary
will come of this and it won't be better 3D TVs but something really game
changing like a containment field for a super power cell.

or the bean stalk (aka space elevator)

[natausch]

People made out of graphene houses should throw bricks, hammers and trucks.

Although at one atom thick it is probably sharp as stinky cheese from the wrong angle.

[woodturner]

Although at one atom thick it is probably sharp as stinky cheese from the wrong angle.

Kind of invokes Le Guin's molecular wire....

[radhak]

Thinking this over a bit more, I am wondering how much of the report is hyperbole. Thickness of one atom is practically non-existent thickness - so a sheet of 'cloth' of this thickness should be transparent to the human eye. And then to be of the strength stated - that is borderline fantasy. Somehow it seems closer to description fit for a comic book than the nobel prize...

wonder how they created and tested something like that; I'd dread to think this stayed at the level of theory.

[woodturner]

Thickness of one atom is practically non-existent thickness - so a sheet of 'cloth' of this thickness should be transparent to the human eye.

Only if you look at the edge - if you look at it perpendicular to the face, it looks like any other sheet of material.

And then to be of the strength stated - that is borderline fantasy.
wonder how they created and tested something like that

The details of the testing and production method are in the research paper. If you don't have access to research journals, your local college library should be able to give you access.

I found it interesting, no fantasy involved. Keep in mind work like this is peer reviewed before it is published and has been very thoroughly vetted by many, many people before even being nominated for a Nobel prize.

[Pappy]

What's the big deal????? Publishers have been wraping bundles of magazines in stuff stronger than that for years.

[chopnhack]

Radhak, the sheet in question that was theoretically used to cover the coffee cup was not an atom thick, but the same thickness as a sheet of plastic used for wrapping a refrigerator. Check the article. I agree with you, one atom thick and you could easily displace one atom, and once that is done, I am sure more would give way. I think the really exciting part was the fact that the material behaves with different physics...classic physics don't apply for motion of electrons through the material. Instead they flow through it in waves at light speed!! I'm thinking quantum computing...

[luteman]

Wasn't the paper on Cold Fusion also peer reviewed?

[woodturner]

Wasn't the paper on Cold Fusion also peer reviewed?

Actually, no. It was "announced" by the university but was not accepted for publication.

FWIW, some later concluded that they had discovered a previously unknown phenomena, it just wasn't cold fusion.

The wiki has a reasonably accurate historical account:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion

[billwmeyer]

Physics Nobel Honors Work on Ultra-Thin Carbon



A funny way of specifying strength instead of PSI (i guess that's their 'layman' language), but that is intimidating strength : now I know what material is used for the costumes of all the JLA members (Superman, Batman, etc)...

No, Ma Kent made Superman's costume from the baby blankets he was wrapped in on his rocket trip from Krypton. They were unraveled and cut by superman's heat vision.

I wish my mom hadn't thrown away all of my Superman comic books after I moved out.

Bill

[gsmittle]

No, Ma Kent made Superman's costume from the baby blankets he was wrapped in on his rocket trip from Krypton. They were unraveled and cut by superman's heat vision.

I wish my mom hadn't thrown away all of my Superman comic books after I moved out.

Bill

Well, Bill, if you hadn't moved out you'd still have your comics.

I wonder if you can make a table saw blade out of graphene…

g.