The story might be familiar by now: The material in our lowly pencils — graphene, a version of carbon — could change the world. There’s graphene-enhanced eyewear and graphene-inspired condoms, but is this all hype? Beyond the buzzwords, what exactly is graphene, and what are its real possibilities?
Graphene-inspired eyewear might not amount to much, but graphene really could hold the key to advanced bullet-proof armor and lighter and safer smartphones, say scientists Joseph Meany and Les Johnson. They’re the authors of Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World, out February 6th from Prometheus Books. The Verge spoke to Meany and Johnson about the science behind this material, what it could do, and what we have yet to figure out. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
The Verge: Let’s start from the beginning.How did the two of you meet? And how did you end up writing a book about graphene?
Meany: Les is the co-founder of a science group called the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop, which I joined. Les got to know my work and just asked me off the cuff, as we were walking past each other, how much do you know about graphene? ‘Well, a lot,’ I said, it’s a conducting organic molecule and it’s what I’m getting my doctorate in. And he said, let’s follow up, I want to write a book with you. And then we took it and ran with it.
Johnson: For me, it started with solar sailing. In my professional capacity I work for NASA —and to be clear, I wrote this book on my own time so all this is my own opinion and not that of NASA. So, in my day job, I’m an expert in using solar sailing and I’ve got a mission using a solar sail that’s roughly the size of a school bus. Think of a sailboat, which moves by reflecting wind. On solar sails, instead of wind, you can use sunlight to move out of really big sails, hundreds of square feet if not thousands.
The one we’re using is made of plastic, but I’m always at the future, and the first time I got interested in graphene, I was reading about it and thinking ‘Wow, if only we could make this in large quantities!’ It’s extremely lightweight and extremely strong. Put a reflective coating and it would make a fantastic sail for a future solar mission.
