Today , two professors won the Nobel prizefor physic “ for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two - dimensional cloth graphene . ” The Nobel is the Olympian atomic number 79 of skill . But what is graphene , and why did it earn these Guy over a million sawbuck ?
Some Nobels in cathartic are ( comparatively ) straightforward . In 1935 , James Chadwick discovered the neutron . A huge deal , of course , but something you may understand by 11th grade . But today ’s honor — award to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov — is for a two - dimensional material . A what ? Not on the button in high spirits schooling clobber . So let ’s pause it down .
Graphene is , put most but , carbon copy mote — the same clobber in your pencil — arranged in link up hexagon . ( Fun fact : the pair started their work with graphene by skin off layers of actual pencil leash with scotch taping ) . This does n’t sound like anything special , except for the fact that , as Geim himself explains , “ Everything in our three - dimensional world has a width , duration and summit . That was what we thought , at least . ” Geim and Novoselov ’s work dilate our understanding of material that do n’t have any of these dimensional properties , because they are only one atom loggerheaded . They are lacking an entire dimension .
It ’s hard to ideate — but that ’s sort of the point . The duo ’s oeuvre is on the frontier of an intact class of stuff and nonsense that we ’re only just now starting to be able-bodied to conceive of . Geim himself says he has no idea the extent to which a cloth such as graphene could be useful . But we do acknowledge that it is passing coolheaded . Despite ( or rather , because of ) its miserable two - dimensionality , graphene is thestrongest and thinnestsubstance in the known universe , can be stretched like prophylactic , and isimpregnable by liquid or gas . It also acquit electrical energy , allowing it to ( someday ) beat the bloomers off the copper and Si we use in , well , pretty much everything . Still unimpressed ? A level of graphene could hold up a motortruck atop a pencil . You do n’t wait so peachy now , do you , neutron .
So what ’s next ? “ optimist say we are figure a carbon long time . Even pessimists argue only that the impact will be more or less less , ” says Geim , who is , of course , excited : “ I hope that graphene and other two - dimensional crystals will change daily life as charge plate did for human beings . ” So we ’ll have to await and see , but still — job well done , gents .
Imagery by Sam Spratt . fit out Sam’sportfolioand become a lover of hisFacebook Artist ’s Page .
Physics
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