"Never Stop Questioning" - Albert Einstein
To Define, explain or even attempt to comprehend the word "Science" it would take me thousands & thousands of words, and even then I would not give it complete justice.
Science is one of the most developing aspects in our planet, ever evolving, ever innovating, ever changing and ever defining this world as we know it.
Rooted back to the Latin word Scienta meaning "knowledge" Science is honestly one of the most interesting topics, though not really a topic, but more like a movement, a force, one that should be definitely reckoned with. As it effects each and every one of us, from the simplest of ways to the most complex.
branching to hundreds of classes, I say again, Science cannot be explained or defined in a few words, we will ever be searching for its end, and honestly that day will never come in my opinion..
Over the course of this year, this column would be concerning, major scientific achievements, whether new or old, and their impact on our world, their essence, their story..
Also, The title of each post would be words of wisdom coming from our amazing scientists..
This post is dedicated to the Great Albert Einstein..
" Behind Every achievement lies a story..."
We all know that it at times, we wont be directly effected by these achievements, however whether directly or indirectly, whether today or tomorrow or in 10 years time.. This is our planet, our life, our future, our science and our knowledge..
Take a deeper look, don't just read..
We all know about the Nobel Prize, established by the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel in 1895, that is awarded every year for Excellence and significant impact in the following fields :
- Physics.
- Chemistry.
- Medicine.
- Literature.
- Peace.
This post will be concerning the Nobel Prize in Physics :
Wonder who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 ? :) :)
1) Nobel Prize in Physics :
On the 5th of October of this year, Russian born Dutch Physicist Andre Konstantin Geim along with Russo-British Physicist Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for " Ground breaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material Graphene " A Material has vast potential applications. A material with great significance..
Now we all know about that material Graphite :
An Allotrope of Carbon, with a layered structure where the Carbon atoms are arranged in a Hexagonal lattice, These carbon are bonded together with strong forces however in between the layers of hexagonally bonded carbon atoms lies a weak force called " Vander Waal's Force " .
All science students do have this much of knowledge,
Now in the simplest way possible, to explain what these two physicist did was, they basically managed to separate one layer of graphite..
As you look at the diagram above you notice the three layers, These two scientists were able to separate ONE of these layers and form a hexagonal structure of carbon atoms now known as Graphene.
Now you can visualise it! :) This is a sheet of Graphene..
To give you a more visual effect of how small this is, there fore how much harder it was for them to separate one sheet of it, therefore how much greater their acheivement actually is :
"The carbon-carbon bond length in graphene is about 0.142 nanometres. Graphene sheets stack to form graphite with an interplanar spacing of 0.335 nm, which means that a stack of 3 million sheets would be only one millimeter thick." Amazed ?!!
Read the above twice, pause, think about the size, it blew me away the first time i read it too!!
Potential Applications :
1) Single Molecule Gas Detection :
" Graphene makes an excellent sensor due to its 2D structure. The fact that its entire volume is exposed to its surrounding makes it very efficient to detect adsorbed molecules."
2) Graphene Nano ribbons :
" They essentially single layers of graphene that are cut in a particular pattern to give it certain electrical properties. "
3) Transparent Conducting Electrodes :
" Graphene's high electrical conductivity and high optical transparency make it a candidate for transparent conducting electrodes, required for such applications as touch screens, LCD's and many more.. :
4) Reference material for characterizing electroconductive and transparent materials :
" One layer of graphene absorbs 2.3 % of white light. This property was used to define the Conductivity of Transperacy that combines the sheet resistance and the transperacy. This parameter was used to compare different materials without the use of two independent parameters."
With many more applications, Graphene is something we will be hearing more and more about in the future..
Last request before I conclude, look at the photo above about the sheet of Graphene and read the statement below it to be amazed one more time..
Science will never stop amazing us..
Until next time,
Peace,
May God Bless,
Yazz.