Physics News

In the ongoing search for smaller, faster and more efficient computers, new research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden suggests graphene and carbon nanotubes could be used to create these super small, super fast computers and smartphones. Both made of carbon, the nanotubes and graphene have specific and unique properties, making them ideal for computing. Graphene, for example, is made up of carbon layers which are only atom-thick. Nanotubes are comprised in a similar way, and can be compared to a sheet of graphene which has been rolled up into a tube. Dr. Anders Nordenfelt from Gothenburgh University explains the usefulness of these two elements this way: "If you stretch a graphene sheet from end to end the thin layer can oscillate at a basic frequency of getting on for a billion times a second." "This is the same frequency range used by radios, mobile phones and computers." WIth similar frequencies to what is already being used, researchers like Dr. Nordenfelt hope the small size and weight of