Scientists slice graphite into atom-thick sheets

The Register (U.K.) ^ | October 21, 2004 | Lucy Sherriff

[Hank Rearden]

No matter what the article says, Al Gore invented this.

[BCrago66]

I did that in my kitchen last week, without bragging about it.

[william clark]

Well, that's just fine.

[GeronL]

before or after you built the atom smasher from washing machine parts?

[shibumi]

So, back-engineered alien UFO technology surfaces again!

[Gondring]

Or the Toynbee Convector?

Seriously, if they can figure out how to bond this (...is it warpable, can it be woven instead of just bonding to a substrate?), then perhaps we can start to look seriously at the Space Elevator. Now starting THAT project would be a worthy goal for W in his second term.

[clee1]

and could pave the way for computers built from single molecules.

That would sure make the keyboard impossible to use.

[The Red Zone]

Imagine trying to handle one of those.

[GeronL]

I doubt the planning of that would even start in 4 years. Heck, they haven't even studied the idea enough and won't over the next 4.

[broadsword]

You just have to develop liiiiitle tiiiiiny fingertips.

[broadsword]

...then perhaps we can start to look seriously at the Space Elevator. Now starting THAT project would be a worthy goal for W in his second term.

That would just be another high tech thingy for the produce-nothing, worth-nothing, Muslim terrorists to blow up.

[endthematrix]

Re: ambipolar field effect transistor qualities

S. J. Tans, R. M. Verschueren, and C. Dekker, “Room temperature tran-sistor based on a single carbon nanotube,” Nature, vol. 393, pp. 49–52,1998.

[Gondring]

I don't think the response to terrorism is to stop progress. Perhaps such a target would be exactly what they'd want to hit, but we Americans don't stop living just because they'd want to kill us, do we?

[Gondring]

Actually, a rather reasonable draft plan has been compiled, and though this plan wouldn't be the final form, a real effort toward an elevator could initiated at any time. (See, for example, the July 2004 cover article of that leftie science rag Discover.) Of course, the actual elevator wouldn't be completed in 4 years.

[Gondring]

(Weren't there a couple of giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? What happened to them?)

Some folks think there were three.

[Lurking2Long]

I could do the same thing with a number 3 pencil...

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Boy, that could cause a really nasty "paper cut".

[broadsword]

I don't think the response to terrorism is to stop progress.

Of course not.

Perhaps such a target would be exactly what they'd want to hit, but we Americans don't stop living just because they'd want to kill us, do we?

No, my friend. The idea is to kill the seventh-century savages BEFORE they kill us.

BTW: I would love to see that space elevator before I die. I have always thought it an intriguing idea.

[Quix]

Sounds like we're approaching ET cleverness in such constructions.

I think one or more of the filmy, foily artifacts from more than a crash or there was analyzed to find an odd mix of elements bonded together in a mystifying layering wherein each element was only an atom or so thick in it's layer.