Harder than diamond? Is this stuff lab made like those artificial diamonds or found naturally?

@ Daniel

It’s lab made, an example of nanotechnology at work. It’s essentially atoms of carbon arranged like Chickenwire, but that arrangement gives it remarkable properties. Imagine it as flat, but as a result it can be rolled into tubes and so on, It’s like a diamond in that it’s composed of carbon, but its structure makes it very different. The applications of Graphene development are huge and potentially world changing.

Huh? Prof Coleman is the coolest guy you could meet at a conference!! And anyways, we don’t get out all that much so who cares for fashion…keep our minds focused on what’s important!

No offence meant , I have huge respect for these guys . I love the way so many of them look like chilled out hippies.

There probably wasn’t anyone in the other college that were doing the kinda research the EU were looking for. Funding bodies don’t choose the college, a researcher chooses the research and then seeks funding.

other colleges*

Ciaran, it’s down to who applies to what grants and who can write a project proposal that is half descent and will provide something unique and important for the future! The fact that these proposals are over 100 pages long (for the lower funding out there…)….not a great deal of Irish researchers really want to spend months on end (9am – 12 pm) writing these grants..and those that do are entering into a pool of sharks hoping to come out alive afterwards.

It’s simple the USA generates the vast majority of the world’s Scientific papers. The Muslims with trillions of dollars from oil contribute nothing. Look at NASA, dozens of billion dollar projects under way and planned. The EUs contribution is sod all in comparison.

The states made leaps and bounds in technology post war because they took all the natzi scientists and gave them new identities to work in Nasa etc. Hiltler did a serious amount of research.

Bren, I’m not aware of “all the Nazi scientists” being given work by the US. The only possible one would be Wernher Von Braun who always claimed he was forced to join the party and took no part in it’s activities. In fact he was arrested and nearly shot for being a communist sympathiser. Germany in the 30′s was probably The leading country for Physics. Many of those Physicists were Jews who fled to Germany to escape the Nazis, including Einstein and many others. Many other German scientists who were not Jewish also left Germany after the Nazis came to power. To this day the US attracts the top scientists in the world because it spends so much on fundamental research. Europe has a long way to go to catch up.

Well … a little research later:

Graphene is made from graphite (unsurprisingly) and there is graphite on the moon.
Some geezer has built a giant 3d printer of the sort that could be constructed on the moon.
3d Printers can use graphene.
Graphene could be used for constructing buildings.

Buildings made from graphene on the moon. Only a scientific hop skip and jump away.

Silly point. People don’t starve because of a lack of money, it’s their politics or lack of same. A billion represents a couple of euro per person in the EU per year. What’s spent on cigarettes and drink? In fact it’s less than your designer sunglasses. :)

Yes the mind boggles and without science you wouldn’t be able to make that point. Science = Good for Humanity. So more research means the world benefits more from it.

@ John Doyle .Well you would say that wouldn’t you cause youre in the science field and so am I but I can see it for what it is.
I dont care about technology , My life was simpler in the 80′s with little technology.

Science has also contibuted to the mess we are in as a planet in whole The horrific damage done has been done to the environment ( Oil spills, chemicals released into the ecosystem ) , people ( Medicinal error) and animals all in the name of science. Sellafield is a marvel of science and look at all the people who die in Dundalk from cancer. It’s shocking.

We’ve evolved beyond the point weve should have if the money system does collapse we return to the dark ages.

Bren, you’re life was simpler in the 80’s? Why pick the 80’s why not go for the 1880’s when life expectancy was more like 40 and children died in their millions before the technology called vaccination. I can’t believe that you are “in the science field” in any meaningful sense. Your post is what would be expected from anti-science Luddite who dropped out of school in high infants.

The planet “isn’t in a mess”. Bar the problem of Climate Change, pollution is down in most places. Salmon swim in the Thames. Climate Change could be solved if you anti-nuclear types didn’t oppose the building of new NP stations. An oil spill hardly affects the planet at all, after all oil is a natural substance. It mostly causes economic, short term local pollution and is unsightly. After the recent Gulf spill the damage was relatively little.

Medicinal error? Are you barking mad? Since WWI life expectancy has gone up more than in recorded history. My father got an extra 25 years because of the technology of bypass surgery. People are living full lives today who would have died an agonising death a century ago.

There’s isn’t a shred of evidence anyone in Dundalk died because of any Nuclear activity in Sellafield. That’s a statement you expect from a New Age Hippy with cannabis fried brains. The doctor from Dundalk who claimed that died in a car accident so I’ll give you one point for technology there, although Marie Curie’s (scientist who helped discover radioactivity) husband died after being knocked down by a horse and cart, so maybe I’ll subtract that point again.

Oh ffs. Have you any Idea the importance of Graphene research? It is going to be huge. Also, if Irish companies can get patents submitted for this stuff it will pay for a lot more nurses and Gardai than €1 Billion.

Don’t feed trolls.

@barry,no it won’t they would just sell any rights for 3magic beans as with out oil gas gold

@Barry, why don’t you explain to us the importance of this research? I think you’re making it up as you go along…

@steve, ur mistakenly thinking that the Irish government would own the patents, no they wouldn’t.

@Barry, why would you attack a complete stranger like that on the internet? Do people do that? You dont know me, I am but a simple man who doesnt know about graphene research and you seem like you know it all… or are you just full of big talk cos this is the internet? I bet your real name isnt even Barry…

Its used for just about everything. Its a great semiconductor and a conductor, it can be used to tune lasers, sequence DNA, as a light source, it can filter water, create biofuels, its a great themral conductor and its incredible strong.