binve (< 20)

Well, why don't you marry graphene?

March 23, 2012 – Comments (9)

Edited scene from Arrested Development:

(George Sr. and Michael in prison)

George Sr.: I am having a love affair with this ice cream sandwich. Want some? Wanna bite?
Michael: Please ....
George Sr.: Take a bite.
Michael: Please ...
George Sr.: Come on take a bite.
Michael: The SEC has completely locked up our funds. These guys aren't messing around.
Gaurd: No touching!
Michael: So I need you to tell me, were you taking vacations in this jet? Is that what you're hiding from me?
George Sr.: I haven't taken a vacation in years. This is my vacation. I'm exercising. I'm sleeping well.
Michael: You're doing time.
George Sr.: I'm doing the time of my life!

... (later in episode) ...

(Micheal enters apartment, Lucille on phone)

Lucille: Then why don't you marry an ice cream sandwich? I've got to go. (hangs up).
Michael: Who was that? Was that Dad?
Lucille: That was Gob.
Michael: Uh huh. So Mom. I'm trying to find --
(Lucille and Michael speak simultaneously)
Michael: These flight records.
Lucille: I don't know where they are.
Michael: You know, it's really more believeable if you let me finish.


.... So now if you substitute in binve for George Sr. and graphene for ice cream sandwich and Michael for the rest of the Caps community that I am boring with all these graphene posts, then you have a compelling analogy.

But I can't help it, graphene is just so cool

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Graphene and DNA: 'Wonder material' may hold key to fast, inexpensive genetic sequencing
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-graphene-dna-material-key-fast.html

Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery.

Now, researchers at the University of Delaware have conducted high-performance computer modeling to investigate a new approach for ultrafast DNA sequencing based on tiny holes, called nanopores, drilled into a sheet of graphene.

"Graphene is a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern" Branislav Nikolic, associate professor of physics and astronomy, said. "The mechanical stability of graphene makes it possible to use an electron beam to sculpt a nanopore in a suspended sheet of graphene, as demonstrated in 2008 by Marija Drndić at the University of Pennsylvania.”

Graphene has been among the fastest-growing areas of study in nanoscience and technology over the past five years, Nikolic said. He calls it a wonder material that has remarkable mechanical, electronic and optical properties and is being investigated for a variety of applications as diverse as plastic packaging and next-generation gigahertz transistors.

In the sequencing that he and other physicists have proposed, a tiny hole a few nanometers in diameter is drilled into a sheet of graphene and DNA is threaded through that nanopore. Then, a current of ions flowing vertically through the pore or an electronic current flowing transversely through the graphene is used to detect the presence of different DNA bases within the nanopore.

“Since graphene is only one atom thick, the nanopore through which DNA is threaded has contact with only a single DNA base,” Nikolic said.

In 2010, three experimental teams—led by Jene Golovchenko of Harvard, Cees Dekker of Delft and Drndić—demonstrated DNA detection using nanopores in large-area graphene. However, Nikolic said, the process moved too quickly for the existing electronics to detect single DNA bases.