Love alters not

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

 

Sonnet 116- Let me not to marriage of true minds admit impediments by Shakespeare

My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have

ROMEO
O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

JULIET
What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?

ROMEO
The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.

JULIET
I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
And yet I would it were to give again.

ROMEO
Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what purpose, love?

JULIET
But to be frank, and give it thee again.
And yet I wish but for the thing I have:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu!
Anon, good nurse! Sweet Montague, be true.
Stay but a little, I will come again.

ROMEO
O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard.
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

JULIET
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.
If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
By one that I’ll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.

JULIET
I come, anon.–But if thou mean’st not well,
I do beseech thee–

JULIET
By and by, I come:–
To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief:
To-morrow will I send.

ROMEO
So thrive my soul–

JULIET
A thousand times good night!

ROMEO
A thousand times the worse, to want thy light.
Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from
their books,
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

JULIET
Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer’s voice,
To lure this tassel-gentle back again!
Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud;
Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine,
With repetition of my Romeo’s name.

ROMEO
It is my soul that calls upon my name:
How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears!

JULIET
Romeo!

ROMEO
My dear?

JULIET
At what o’clock to-morrow
Shall I send to thee?

ROMEO
At the hour of nine.

JULIET
I will not fail: ’tis twenty years till then.
I have forgot why I did call thee back.

ROMEO
Let me stand here till thou remember it.

JULIET
I shall forget, to have thee still stand there,
Remembering how I love thy company.

ROMEO
And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget,
Forgetting any other home but this.

JULIET
‘Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone:
And yet no further than a wanton’s bird;
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

ROMEO
I would I were thy bird.

JULIET
Sweet, so would I:
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! parting is such
sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
(Full text  available here)

A (mini) Graphene talk

Graphene, the wonder material, one dimensional single atom layer thick, sp2 hybridized Carbon atoms, has been the hottest topic in research these days, since the discovery of its exceptional properties in 2004 by Professor Andre Geim and his team at University of Manchester. Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 was awarded jointly to Professor Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”.

There are now thousands of researchers, scientists, engineers and students who are working on the efficient and commercial production, synthesis, and application of this material. Though graphene applications have remained only inside the laboratories till now, it is expected that, within next few years, we shall see some flexible displays, solar cells, energy storage devices, etc made of graphene.

So what is graphene?
It is harder than diamond, but can stretch like rubber. It is superb conductor of electricity, better than Copper wires. It is almost invisible and weighs almost nothing.
The very same pencil lead (yes, it’s graphite!) that we use for  writing is made of millions of layers of the same material ‘graphene’.

As a student, my encounter with graphene is very new and currently being involved in graphene led me to dig in to the root of the graphene foundation, that is today. From the biography of Professor Andre Geim to the recent studies in production of graphene, I am a learning kid, one of those thousands who are now walking in the graphene road.

Suggestions for further reading in graphene and more:

Graphene (wikipedia article)
Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010
Professor Andre Geim (Biography)
Random Walk to Graphene, (Nobel Lecture by Prof Andre Geim)
Professor Andre Geim

And of course there are thousands of publications, many pioneer scientists and researchers and wide range of publicity about graphene, which I am not able to mention here. If you have (further) questions about this exceptional material after reading this post, my objective is fulfilled. I simply wanted to express how I started and how one could start. If you are now following any of these links above, you are already on the road to GREPHENE.