And just remember - you read it here first! Er, well, not exactly first because actually it was my brainy e-pal, Malcolm Pollack, at his Waka Waka Waka site who told us about it, all I'm doing is repeating much of what he wrote. If you follow his links you will get the general idea of what appears to have the potential for an industrial revolution likely to equal, or even exceed, the first. Incidentally, I was delighted to see from the film he links to that work on this is being conducted at Manchester University - well done the 'Mancs', even if most of them seem to be foreign!
"I, Pencil", written by Leonard Reed and later publicised by Milton Friedman was a hugely influential essay in which the development and production of a simple everyday tool, the pencil, was shown to be, in fact, exceedingly complex and totally dependent on the free exchange of goods and services provided by complete strangers to each other. One of the pencil's components is graphite, a form of carbon and related to the diamond. However, the diamond is made up of 3-dimensional carbon atoms which gives it great strength, where-as graphite is made up of 2-dimensional 'sheets' of atoms layerd upon each other which tend to slide under pressure and is part of the reason why the tip of your pencil always snaps just after you have sharpened it!
Now, scientists have dug deeper, so to speak, and managed to seperate the individual sheets of carbon atoms which they call graphene. In these individual, 2-dimensional sheets the atoms are linked in a hexagonal lattice-pattern and the strength, apparently, is enormous, greater than the highest grade steel. Just as important is the fact that this lattice-work pattern is super conductive for thermal, accoustic and electronic transmissions. The possibilities for this new mineral are already boggling greater minds than mine even if the production difficulties are equally intimidating.
It all goes to show that most so-called 'futorology' is no better that tarot cards. No sooner do we make a prediction than human ingenuity and brain-power turns everything topsy-turvy.
