A new type of material, called graphene, is a gigantic wafer-shaped single molocule the thickness of an atom. Graphene is a member of the fullerene molecule family, like buckyballs and nanotubes. It could make a great semiconductor material, allowing for ultra-fast, stable transistors. More at BBCNews.
Great catch osnews.
This is actually interesting and informative.
Great catch osnews.
It was actually on Slashdot first:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/22/0433220
Yea, that’s probably where they found it, but some of us read osnews much more religiously than slashdot.
Yea, that’s probably where they found it, but some of us read osnews much more religiously than slashdot.
And then there are bigger losers (like me ;^) who reads both sites religiously.
Call me crazy, but I seem to remember reading recently that Buckyballs may pose a threat to our environment, http://www.chemlin.de/news/sep04/20040924e04.htm (Though, as you can see, this isn’t a problem going unnoticed), much like most xenochemicals (as in man made).
Do all fullerene’s pose a threat to our environment? Do these new planar fullerenes pose a threat similar to that of benzene (i.e. Fitting between nucleotide base pairs, thereby facilitating mutations of ones DNA)?
I would assume that in today’s world where we have the potential to adequately assess potential damage caused by new products that we investigate them before releasing them to the market. I’d hate to see the computer’s of the future be as toxic as the computer’s of today.
If it was up to me, all new products must have an “end of life” plan, such that the product may be broken down into useful materials for future goods (see. “Cradle to Cradle”, by William McDonough, Michael Braungart).
(Note: Sorry the above link doesn’t work guys. I can’t seem to make it work when previewing…)
bucky ball toxicity likely tunable http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041006083717.htm
Kick ass! Let’s just hope they don’t turn out to be the PCB’s of the new millennium (PCB’s were originally thought to be inert and safe).
Call me a sci-fi geek, but doesn’t this mean monofilament whips and monofilament edging on weapons?
most likley this have been the promise of nanotech for a very long time now. time will tell
Mmmm…
Would make an EXCELLENT Bio weapon, with a few modifications.
Shouldn’t be too hard to do.
-gc
Mmmm…
Would make an EXCELLENT Bio weapon, with a few modifications.
Shouldn’t be too hard to do.
Except for the fact that they’re not exactly biological 😛
I’d think that the process of making graphenes work as a silicon replacement would involve adding this as another layer to a silcon substrate even if silicon is no longer the bulk material for electron transport.
If any heat was generated by a 1 atom thick sheet without a solid substrate, it would vapourize wouldn’t it.
Anyway the semi industry will be playing with all sorts of new ways to survive the transition to 60nm and downwards so this trick is far down the list of things to try, unless of course these Uni people make some big breakthroughs in making it practical.
should i sue them?
Do all fullerene’s pose a threat to our environment?
With all the other nasty stuff out there in the environment fulleren’s should be the least of our worries. Coupled with the chicken little syndrome i am surprise that the eco-freaks haven’t banned breathing air because of its tendency to oxidize our hemoglobin. This is awesome science!