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.

 

What light is light if you be not seen

What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be to think that she is by,
And feed upon the shadow of perfection.
Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale;
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon;
She is my essence; and I leave to be,
If I be not by her fair influence
Foster’d, illumined, cherish’d, kept alive.
I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom:
Tarry I here, I but attend on death;
But, fly I hence, I fly away from life.

Valentine
from Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona

What if Shakespeare were not real?

According to the movie Anonymous, if we are to believe this theory, it makes us feel that all the works of William Shakespeare, the greatest writer in English literature, were not the from original author whom we are known to.
I liked the some of the logic and who knows, what it really was, we didn’t see for ourselves.
But the truth is, a few works I have read about Shakespeare, I admire them all. His words will be cherished for the centuries.

If you are interested in what I am talking about, watch the movie and you can read more about it in wikipedia.