http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The research that brought to light the fossils of Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia, has topped Science's list of this year's most significant scientific breakthroughs. The monumental find predates "Lucy," -- previously the most ancient partial skeleton of a hominid on record -- by more than one million years, and it inches researchers ever-closer to the last common ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees. http://www.physorg.com/news180282874.html Other Sciences Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:35:25 EST news180282874 A single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, like those seen in pencil marks -- offers great potential for new types of nanoscale devices, if a good way can be found to mold the material into desired shapes. http://www.physorg.com/news180256587.html Nanotechnology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:18:00 EST news180256587 Two-dimensional carbon layers, so-called graphenes, are regarded as a possible substitute for silicon in the semiconductor industry. The electronic properties of these layers can be varied by "building in" specific arrays of holes in their structure. Physicists at Empa, Switzerland, together with chemists from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, have, for the first time, succeeded in synthesizing a graphene-like porous polymer with atomic accuracy. http://www.physorg.com/news177871833.html Nanotechnology Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:53:34 EST news177871833 (PhysOrg.com) -- A Cornell research team has invented a simple way to make graphene electrical devices by growing the graphene directly onto a silicon wafer. http://www.physorg.com/news177062908.html Nanotechnology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:10:01 EST news177062908 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT physicist Pablo Jarillo-Herrero has won a 2009 David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, an award he will use to study a new class of materials that could have applications in the semiconductor industry and quantum computing. http://www.physorg.com/news174894793.html Physics Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:40:02 EST news174894793 UCL researchers are helping to unlock the secrets of a material that could ultimately be used in a new generation of electronic devices. http://www.physorg.com/news174852159.html Nanotechnology Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:10:01 EST news174852159 Rutgers researchers have discovered novel electronic properties in two-dimensional sheets of carbon atoms called graphene that could one day be the heart of speedy and powerful electronic devices. http://www.physorg.com/news174745964.html Nanotechnology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:33:58 EST news174745964 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have investigated the purest graphene to date, and have found that the material possesses unprecedented high electronic quality. The discovery has raised the bar for this relatively new material, and challenges scientists to find out just how perfect graphene can be. http://www.physorg.com/news174654627.html Nanotechnology Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:11:02 EST news174654627 (PhysOrg.com) -- In an effort to make graphene more useful in electronics applications, Kansas State University engineers made a golden discovery -- gold "snowflakes" on graphene. http://www.physorg.com/news174590038.html Nanotechnology Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:15:28 EST news174590038 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers say they have found a simple way to improve the semiconducting properties of the world`s thinnest material - by giving it a good tug. http://www.physorg.com/news173340834.html Nanotechnology Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:14:30 EST news173340834 It is the marriage of two top candidates for the electronics of the future, both excentric and extremely interesting: Graphene, one of the partners, is an extremely thin fellow and besides, very young. http://www.physorg.com/news172305470.html Physics Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:38:33 EST news172305470 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cornell researchers fabricated, tested and measured a simple solar cell called a photodiode, formed from an individual carbon nanotube. http://www.physorg.com/news171812521.html Nanotechnology Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:42:52 EST news171812521 For the first time, scientists have built completely flat, two-layer ice. While theoreticians have predicted that such ices are formed by squeezing water molecules between two surfaces, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Ruhr-Universitat Bochum are the first to create it. All it took was collaboration, creativity, and the absence of pressure. http://www.physorg.com/news171729768.html Chemistry Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:47:28 EST news171729768 Ever since graphene was discovered in 2004, this one-atom thick, super strong, carbon-based electrical conductor has been billed as a "wonder material" that some physicists think could one day replace silicon in computer chips. http://www.physorg.com/news168251755.html Nanotechnology Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:36:30 EST news168251755 (PhysOrg.com) -- Recent research into the properties of graphene nanoribbons provides two new reasons for using the material as interconnects in future computer chips. In widths as narrow as 16 nanometers, graphene has a current carrying capacity approximately a thousand times greater than copper -while providing improved thermal conductivity. http://www.physorg.com/news168103210.html Nanotechnology Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:21:00 EST news168103210 (PhysOrg.com) -- Graphene is nature's thinnest elastic material and displays exceptional mechanical and electronic properties. Its one-atom thickness, planar geometry, high current-carrying capacity and thermal conductivity make it ideally suited for further miniaturizing electronics through ultra-small devices and components for semiconductor circuits and computers. http://www.physorg.com/news167835039.html Nanotechnology Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:20:01 EST news167835039 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first artificial graphene has been created at the NEST laboratory of the Italian Institute for the Physics of Matter (INFM-CNR) in Pisa. It is sculpted on the surface of a gallium-arsenide semiconductor, to which it grants the extraordinary properties of the original graphene. Published as a Rapid Communication on Phys.Rev.B, the research has been highlighted by the American Physical Society. http://www.physorg.com/news167052354.html Nanotechnology Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:26:41 EST news167052354 Imagine a carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer chips. That's graphene, the latest wonder material coming out of science laboratories around the world. It's creating tremendous buzz among physicists, chemists and electronic engineers. http://www.physorg.com/news166730304.html Nanotechnology Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:58:57 EST news166730304 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the issues afflicting magnetic memory is the fact that it is difficult to store information for as long as 10 years. In order to overcome this problem, scientists and engineers have been looking for a way to increase the density of magnetic grains used for storage, as well as use a material with high magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE). Using cobalt (which has the highest MAE of ferromagnetic elements), a group at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden, Germany, discovered a way to increase the density of magnetic grains in a data storage device. http://www.physorg.com/news166180590.html Physics Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:16:51 EST news166180590 (PhysOrg.com) -- How can you weigh a single atom? European researchers have built an exquisite new device that can do just that. It may ultimately allow scientists to study the progress of chemical reactions, molecule by molecule. http://www.physorg.com/news165504348.html Nanotechnology Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:34:03 EST news165504348 Graphene is the two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon, whose extraordinary electron mobility and other unique features hold great promise for nanoscale electronics and photonics. But there's a catch: graphene has no bandgap. http://www.physorg.com/news163859660.html Nanotechnology Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:34:48 EST news163859660 Graphene is an atomically thin sheet of carbon that has attracted significant attention due to its potential use in high-performance electronics, sensors and alternative energy devices such as solar cells. While the physics of graphene has been thoroughly explored, chemical functionalization of graphene has proven to be elusive. http://www.physorg.com/news161787252.html Chemistry Sun, 17 May 2009 13:55:13 EST news161787252 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at UCLA have developed a new method for producing a hybrid graphene-carbon nanotube, or G-CNT, for potential use as a transparent conductor in solar cells and consumer electronic devices. These G-CNTs could provide a cheaper and much more flexible alternative to materials currently used in these and similar applications. http://www.physorg.com/news161456665.html Nanotechnology Wed, 13 May 2009 18:05:20 EST news161456665 New research findings could lead to faster, smaller and more versatile computer chips. A team of scientists and engineers from Stanford, the University of Florida and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the first to create one of two basic types of semiconductors using an exotic, new, one-atom-thick material called graphene. http://www.physorg.com/news160925180.html Nanotechnology Thu, 07 May 2009 14:26:54 EST news160925180 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a blown-up image from a scanning tunneling microscope, it looks just like an endless sheet of chicken wire: a simple flat sheet made up of a lattice of hexagons. But this nanoscopic material called graphene, first generally acknowledged to exist just five years ago, turns out to have a variety of unique, and potentially very useful, characteristics -- ones several MIT researchers are actively trying to better understand and turn into real-world applications. http://www.physorg.com/news160750293.html Nanotechnology Tue, 05 May 2009 13:53:07 EST news160750293 Scientists at Rice University have found a simple way to create basic elements for aircraft, flat-screen TVs, electronics and other products that incorporate sheets of tough, electrically conductive material. http://www.physorg.com/news159022294.html Nanotechnology Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:52:42 EST news159022294 Kansas State University engineers think the possibilities are deep for a very thin material. http://www.physorg.com/news158850916.html Nanotechnology Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:16:07 EST news158850916 (PhysOrg.com) -- Science fiction fans still have another two months of waiting for the new Star Trek movie, but fans of actual science can feast their eyes now on the first movie ever of carbon atoms moving along the edge of a graphene crystal. Given that graphene - single-layered sheets of carbon atoms arranged like chicken wire - may hold the key to the future of the electronics industry, the audience for this new science movie might also reach blockbuster proportions. http://www.physorg.com/news157730577.html Nanotechnology Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:03:37 EST news157730577 (PhysOrg.com) -- New research findings at MIT could lead to microchips that operate at much higher speeds than is possible with today's standard silicon chips, leading to cell phones and other communications systems that can transmit data much faster. http://www.physorg.com/news156698836.html Physics Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:27:54 EST news156698836 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have already known that carbon nanotube thin films have mechanical and conductive advantages that could make them useful as electrodes in solar cells, solid state lighting, and electronic displays. However, studies so far have focused on how well nanotube films transmit light in the visible range, but have not explored the films` infrared properties. http://www.physorg.com/news155993510.html Nanotechnology Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:32:47 EST news155993510