258 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
258 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
sponsored
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motoring
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ford-future-sessions
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future-of-science
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8207121
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-----
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# Graphene: our miracle material
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## Graphene is harder than diamond, just a single molecule thick and conducts
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electricity. Kat Hannaford talks to the two Nobel prize-winning scientists who
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discovered it about why it could revolutionise everything.
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![Graphene is a planar sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern.
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Stacked graphene sheets form graphite, used in pencils. ][1]
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Graphene is a planar sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern.
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Stacked graphene sheets form graphite, used in pencils.
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Kat Hannaford 3:48PM GMT 16 Dec 2010
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They say diamonds are a girl's best friend, but in the coming years that could
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all change. Stronger than diamonds, more conductive than copper, so
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stretchable that just one gram could cover several football pitches, graphene
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is being hailed as the miracle material that could one day replace silicon.
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It's not often that a new substance comes along that is so useful it defines
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an era. We named the Bronze Age after a metal that kick-started the early
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civilisations, and the next age after an even more helpful metal -- iron.
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The Plastic Age sounds less impressive somehow, but it was the last new
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discovery that had such a profound and pervasive effect on our world.
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But what about the Graphene Age? It's the latest wonder stuff which resulted
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in two Russian-born Manchester University professors winning the Nobel prize
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for physics in October, "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-
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dimensional material graphene".
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Ironically, Englishman Alexander Parkes collected a mere bronze medal for
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exhibiting the first plastic at London's Great Exhibition of 1862, but like
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polymer, graphene has a huge potential. Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin
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Novoselov obtained the first samples simply by applying a piece of Sellotape
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to a pencil tip and peeling off layers of graphite.
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Graphite consists of weakly bonded layers of graphene, which is itself
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comprised of carbon atoms arranged in linked hexagons, measuring just one atom
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thick and therefore having just two dimensions.
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Professor Geim described graphene as having "a range of superlatives which no
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other material can be proud of", including its incredible thinness and
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conductive qualities which see electric currents passing 100 times faster than
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copper manages.
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You'd think having such attributes - not to mention its high flexibility and
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impregnability to gas and liquid - would make it suitable for various
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applications. That is true, but what Professor Geim calls a "fertile and huge
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area" is also a juvenile one: "Graphene is really only five years old, and
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despite thousands of researchers working on it, it remains a badly
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investigated area, with some patches remaining completely undiscovered."
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So what's it good for? Rather a lot of things, actually. IBM and Samsung are
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already trying it out in numerous electrical devices, with the first fruit
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borne by IBM in the shape of a transistor, which uses graphene to achieve the
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record-setting speed of 100GHz.
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The fastest alternative using silicon is 40GHz, and given that graphene can be
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tooled in exactly the same way to produce these components, many experts are
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speculating that silicon's days are now numbered - including Professor Geim,
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who says that thanks to "silicon running out of its potential, we are standing
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at the same stage as we were back in the 20th century, when people found
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polymer". While he admits that graphene is not substituting plastic, he does
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credit it as being "equally pervasive as plastic".
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Meanwhile, Samsung has realised that being both transparent and conductive,
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graphene could be perfect for the company's many touchscreen devices. Ever
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since the iPhone rendered buttons unfashionable, touchscreen interfaces for
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smartphones, tablets and even computer monitors have proved extremely
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lucrative for many consumer electronics companies.
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The ever-ambitious graphene's resume doesn't stop there. Researchers at Rice
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University have found a way to synthesise graphene using table sugar, giving
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the material impeccable green credentials.
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In the same American state, engineers at the University of Texas have even
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discovered that by replacing the carbon used in ultra-capacitors with
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graphene, it's possible to store double the amount of energy. That in itself
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could revolutionise the renewable energy industry that is currently looking
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for a new way to store the energy produced by its burgeoning solar and wind
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farms. If the so-called "smart grid" is to prove successful, a way to store
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energy for when it's not sunny or windy is essential.
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It's not just industrial energy storage where graphene could step in and save
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the day, either. We use batteries for many electronic devices, and they're all
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too often the limiting factor. If graphene really can double battery capacity
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at a stroke, it could catch on very quickly.
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Over at Linkoping University in Sweden, scientists have been exploiting a very
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different property. By passing a small electrical current through a
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transparent electrode made of graphene, a very pure light is emitted. Given
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that the bulk of energy we use every day is in lighting, graphene provides a
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very attractive low-carbon alternative to traditional solutions.
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According to Ludvig Edman from nearby Umea University: "This paves the way for
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inexpensive production of entirely plastic-based lighting and display
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components in the form of large flexible sheets. This kind of illumination or
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display can be rolled up or applied as wallpaper or on ceilings."
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Thanks to its flexible nature, graphene could also prove to be the ideal
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building material, with the trick being to incorporate it into a matrix like a
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polymer or a metal, where the load is borne by the graphene layer.
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So far we're only limited by the lack of a super-strong material to
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incorporate graphene, but once that's discovered, we can expect the average
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household to be as aware of graphene as they are of plastics.
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Professor Geim concludes: "At the moment it's a dream, but it's a good dream -
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and in 20 years from now, who knows, graphene may replace silicon."
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[X][2] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][3]
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* Share: [Share][2] [ ][4] [ ][5]
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[Tweet][6]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-
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science/8207121/Graphene-our-miracle-material.html
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Telegraph
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## [Future of science][7]
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* ### [Sponsored »][8]
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* ### [Motoring »][9]
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* ### [Ford Future Sessions »][10]
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[X][2] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][3]
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Share:
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* [ ][2]
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* [ ][4]
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* [ ][5]
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* [Tweet][6]
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* ![][11]
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[The Hubble Telescope »][12]
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### [WIN! a new book about the Hubble Space Telescope's amazing
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discoveries][13]
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[![Light echoes from a red supergiant star, as captured by the Hubble Space
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Telescope. ][14] ][13]
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The Telegraph has five copies of Hubble: Window on the Universe by Giles
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Sparrow, worth £40 each, to give away.
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### [The Hubble Space Telescope: the big picture][15]
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For 20 years the Hubble Space Telescope has shown us amazing images like
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these. Giles Sparrow, author of Hubble: Window on the Universe, explains why
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it's a modern marvel.
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### [Images from the Hubble Space Telescope][16]
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[![Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from Giles Sparrow's Hubble:
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Window on the Universe. ][17]][16]
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Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from the book Hubble: Window on the
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Universe.
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[The new silicon? »][18]
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### [Graphene: our miracle material][19]
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[![Graphene is a planar sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern.
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Stacked graphene sheets form graphite, used in pencils. ][20] ][19]
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Graphene is harder than diamond, just a single molecule thick and conducts
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electricity. Kat Hannaford talks to the two Nobel prize-winning scientists who
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discovered it about why it could revolutionise everything.
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[1]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01787/graphene_1787024b.jpg
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[2]: #
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[3]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/4590190/Share-this-article-
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What-are-these.html
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[4]: mailto:?subject=A Telegraph reader thought you would be interested in
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this article&body=Depending on your email program, you may be able to click on
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the link in the email. Alternatively, you may have to open a web browser, such
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as Firefox or Internet Explorer, and copy the link over into the address bar.
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%0A%0Ahttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/8207121/Graphene-our-miracle-material.html %0A%0AFor the
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best content online, visit www.telegraph.co.uk
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[5]: javascript:print()
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[6]: http://twitter.com/share?via=Telegraph
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[7]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/
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[8]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/
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[9]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/
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[10]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/
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[11]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01766/Ford_in_asso_1766175a.jpg
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[12]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/8206698/Celebrating-the-Hubble-Space-Telescope.html
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[13]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-
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science/8206679/Win-a-copy-of-Hubble-Window-on-the-Universe.html
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[14]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01786/hubble1_1786847e.jpg
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[15]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-science/8206698
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/The-Hubble-Space-Telescope-the-big-picture.html
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[16]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-science/8207252
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/Images-from-the-Hubble-Space-Telescope.html
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[17]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01787/hubble3_1787067e.jpg
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[18]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/8207121/Graphene-our-miracle-material.html
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[19]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-science/8207121
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/Graphene-our-miracle-material.html
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[20]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01787/graphene_1787024e.jpg
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