universe in question.

In addition,
the result applies not only to predictions of a physical systems future
state but also to observations of a
present state and examining a record of a past state.
The theorems proof, similar to
the results of Gdels incompleteness theorem and Turings halting
problem, relies on a variant of the
liars paradox ask Laplaces demon to predict the following yes/no
STUMPED: A theorem on knowledges limits
fact about the future state of the uniechoes the struggle by Laplaces brainy demon.
verse: Will the universe not be one
in which your answer to this question is knowing all the laws governing the uniyes? For the demon, seeking a true yes/no verse and having unlimited computing
answer is like trying to determine the truth power is no help to the demon in saying
of This statement is false. Knowing the truthfully what its answer will be.
In a sense, however, the existence of
exact current state of the entire universe,

such a paradox is not exactly earthshattering. As Scott Aaronson, a

computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
puts it: That your predictions
about the universe are fundamentally constrained by you yourself
being part of the universe youre
predicting, always seemed pretty
obvious to me and I doubt
Laplace himself would say otherwise if we could ask him. Aaronson does allow, though, that it is
often a useful exercise to spell out
all the assumptions behind an idea, recast
everything in formal notation and think
through the implications in detail, as
Wolpert has done. After all, the devil, or
demon, is in the details.

NANOTECH

Grinding Out Graphene

Mass production of carbon nanosheets for electronics inches closer BY ST E V E N A SH L E Y

ilicon has transformed the digital

world, but researchers are still eager
to find substances that will make integrated circuits smaller, faster and cheaper.
High on the list is graphene planar sheets
of honeycomb carbon rings just one atom
thick. This nanomaterial sports a range of
properties including ultrastrength,
transparency (because of its thinness) and
blisteringly fast electron conductivity
that make it promising for flexible displays and superspeedy electronics. Isolated only four years ago, graphene already
appears in prototype transistors, memories and other devices.
But to go from lab benches to store
shelves, engineers need to devise methods
to make industrial quantities of large, uniform sheets of pure, single-ply graphene.
Researchers are pursuing several processing routes, but which approach will succeed remains unclear. Weve seen claims
by groups that say that they can coat
whole silicon wafers with monolayer
sheets of graphene cheaply, reports James

20

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

M. Tour, a chemist at Rice University.

But so far no one has publicly demonstrated it.
Making small amounts is surprisingly
easy, states graphenes discoverer, Andre
K. Geim of the University of Manchester
in England. In fact, you produce a bit of
graphene every time you drag a pencil
point across paper, he notes the pencils
graphite is actually a stack of graphene
layers. The initial graphene-making methods worked similarly to pencil writing: researchers would abrade some graphite and
then search the debris with a microscope
for suitable samples or separate individual
flakes with sticky tape.
Although most scientists consider such
mechanical exfoliation techniques to be
suited only for making tiny amounts,
Geim does not necessarily agree: Recently the procedure was scaled up to produce
as much graphene as you want. He uses
ultrasound to break up graphite into individual layers that are dispersed in a liquid.
The suspension can then be dried out on a

surface, which leaves a film of overlapping

pieces of graphene crystals. Whether these
sheets of multiple crystals can work well
enough for many applications is uncertain, however, because edge boundaries of
individual flakes tend to impede the rapid
flow of electrons.
Bigger samples might come from chemical exfoliation. Last May collaborators
James P. Hamilton of the University of
WisconsinPlatteville and Jonathan N.
Coleman of Trinity College Dublin in
Ireland showed that graphene dissolves
in certain organic solvents. You place
graphite in a bucket, dump in organic liquids that dissolve it, Hamilton says,
then you remove the solvent and out
comes this gray stuff thats pure graphene. Hamiltons start-up company,
Graphene Solutions, hopes to convert that
graphene into uniform, single-crystal
sheets and, ultimately, to commercialize
the process.
Other chemical exfoliation techniques
are possible. Rod Ruoff, now at the UniverMarch 2009

MATT COLLINS

NEWS SCAN

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF AUGSBURG (graphene); COURTESY OF JI HYE HONG Published online in Nature; January 14, 2009 (fi ngers holding polymer)

NEWS SCAN
sity of Texas at Austin, and his former colleagues at Northwestern University have
shown that adding acid to graphite in water can yield graphite oxide that can be separated into individual pieces. Suspended in
liquid, the flakes are then deposited onto a
substrate to form a fi lm. The addition of
other chemicals or heat can drive off the
oxygen groups, yielding graphene.
One such oxygen-removing agent is
rocket fuel, scientists from Rutgers University found specifically, vapors of hydrazine, a highly reactive and toxic compound. Last year Yang Yang and Richard
B. Kaner of the University of California,
Los Angeles, simplified the Rutgers approach by using liquid hydrazine. We
then deposit the pieces onto silicon wafers
or other, more flexible substrates, Yang
says. The results are single-layer films
composed of many platelets. The pair are
now trying to improve the quality of the
sheets, as well as fi nd a safer alternative to
hydrazine.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and elsewhere are looking to make graphene using chemical vapor
deposition (CVD), an established process
that could be readily integrated into microchip fabrication. In CVD, volatile chemicals react and deposit themselves on a substrate as a thin coating. The M.I.T. process
employs a simple, tube-shaped furnace

FLEX TIME: Transparent electrode is made

from a sheet of carbon rings called graphene (inset) stamped on a clear polymer.

containing nickel substrates, electrical engineer Jing Kong says. At one end, we flow
in hydrocarbon gas, which decomposes in
the heat, she explains. Carbon atoms then
fall onto the nickel surface, which acts as a
catalyst to help form the graphene fi lms.
The quality of the graphene, though, de-

pends
on the substrate
p
whether it consists of many
w
nickel crystals or only one,
n
Kong explains. Unfortunately,
K
single-crystal nickel, the most
si
desirable, is costly.
d
Graphene from CVD has
led to one of the biggest
le
achievements yet. A group led by Byung
Hee Hong of Sungkyunkwan University in
South Korea made high-quality films that
the scientists stamped onto a clear, bendable polymer. The result was a transparent
electrode. Improved versions could replace
the more expensive transparent electrodes
(typically made from indium titanium oxide) used in displays.
Ultimately, the graphene-making game
may see more than one winner. Trinity
Colleges Coleman says that the solutionbased exfoliation methods, which to date
produce graphene up to several tens of microns wide, are probably best suited for
middle-size industrial quantities, whereas the Intels of the world will likely be
more interested in growing huge areas of
graphene using CVD-type processes,
which so far can make samples up to a
few square centimeters. But perhaps best
of all, none of the approaches seem to face
insurmountable hurdles. As Rices Tour
puts it: Ill bet that the problems will be
solved within a year or two.

PLANETARY SCIENCE

More Mysterious Methane

Localized burps add intrigue to the question of Martian life BY J O H N M AT SO N

he presence of methane on Mars, fi rst

discovered a few years ago, has
piqued the curiosity of researchers, who
wonder if the gas results from geologic activity or, more intriguingly, from living
organisms, as is largely the case on Earth.
Though by no means settling the issue,
new detections of methane at least point
in the direction of further study.
Using ground-based telescopes, Michael J. Mumma of the NASA Goddard
w w w. S c i A m . c o m

Space Flight Center and his colleagues

monitored about 90 percent of the Red
Planets surface for three Martian years
(equal to seven Earth years). They detected large methane belches during the summer of 2003 and located the areas of those
emissions.
Mumma is careful not to overstate the
significance of his study, published online
January 15 by Science. Although the
methane could have come from the activ-

ity of microbes living below the permafrost, an equally plausible explanation is

that it came from reactions between minerals and water trapped in rocky layers
underneath. The methane could also be a
relic of past processes, somehow sequestered and then released. Still, by knowing
that Marss methane comes from discrete
areas, scientists can look for new sources
and target the regions for future lander
missions.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

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