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The Most Exciting Scientific Discovery Of The Past Decade

    In the past decade there have been many notable scientific and technological accolades such us the increasing rise in hybrid vehicles, the common use of touch-screen technology, use of stem cells to rebuild muscles and for the use of heart regeneration and even the reprogramming of skin cells to function as stem cells. However, for me on a personal level, I find the discovery of Graphene by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov to be the most exciting of the last decade. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon (meaning it is a structure made of the element Carbon but in a certain form), whose structure is a single atom thick planar sheet of Carbon atoms in a hexagonal, honeycomb shaped, lattice with each Carbon atom attached to three other Carbon atoms. What is so special about this allotrope is that it was the first one atom structure known to man, in other words it was two dimensional. Of course with a scientific mind and no explanations, even the simpleton can begin to understand the vast potentials of this discovery.
    The following video is a simple introductory into Graphene produced by the European graphene flagship initiative, posted by Cambridge University onto Youtube.com, please do watch this video for a better understanding of Graphene:

    Only after watching this video do I recommend you to watch the following made by the same people, which further explains the importance of Graphene to science in a brief way and also explains the importance of the organisation who are now backing this substance:

    For their achievements in the discovery and continued research into graphene, the pair who discovered won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010, an award which I think they definitely deserved.
    It is because of the potential in Graphene that I am so excited about it. Imagine, your mobile phone as thin as a piece of paper, with tenfolds the processing speeds, brightness, battery efficiency weight and strength as it is even stronger than diamond, however these are just the cornerstones of what Graphene could provide us with in the future. Electronic components such as microchips and transistors could be so small that the naked eye wouldn't be able to define them on a clear sheet of paper. It is widely believed that soon enough, Graphene will replace Silicon as the basics of electronics.
    My interests in Graphene first started last year whilst I was doing GCSE electronics, and towards the end of April I was doing some research for my electronics project when I came across an article on the BBC website that contained a video which talked of how Graphene was in the run up for a grand prize of 1bn euros in funding in a prestigious competition which promoted the research into technologies that can change the entire world for the better. The following is a link to that very webpage on the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9491789.stm

In other ways it hasn't really influenced my life or my studies, however the example set by the two Physicists who were common researchers doing their everyday work at Manchester University during the time of their discovery was an inspirational one, which showed me that in a similar way I could also achieve great things.

Once again thank you very much for reading my second post, and please check back for future posts...

My Introductory In To Science And Where it Will Take Me

    Hello there and welcome to my blog. My name is Amritpal Mundra and I have recently completed my AS level courses for Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. I live in an average sized family home with my mother, father and brother who is 17 years younger than me. My father and I always had a strong bond and being the bearer of a degree in astronomy, a degree in biophysics and a masters in mathematics, my father would always refer the world around us to science and through him I gained much scientific knowledge and understanding.
    In my early years (thanks to my dad) I was one of the lucky few to have a stash of personal computers in my home in the less technology developed ages. It was what took up most of my time as I surfed the net and played games, however I also had one other use of the computer, and that was education. I must have been at the age of around 7-8 years old when my dad brought home a CD-ROM which was made by DK books. It was an interactive scientific encyclopaedia which was laid out in a world a bit like today’s Google street view online. In this interactive world you are placed on a typical New York street and you can click on different arrows to progress to different landscapes and environments around the world and even fly into space and inside the human body. Everything around this 3-D environment was interactive for example in space you can click on the sun and it will explain to you the important roles that the sun plays in our lives. As far as science goes, this was my first memory of it, which formed part of my basic knowledge of the sciences.
    As I grew up with scientific views of everything around me I have always been influenced by my father and the rest of my family and most importantly my own interests to study the sciences. Science has proved to be great as it has provided deep understanding in to previously unknown areas, such as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution which I strongly believe in despite religious opposition.
    In terms of where I wish to go with science in the future, I am interestted in doing an MEng in Automotive engineering which heavily involves Physics and Mathematics as it mainly covers the topic of mechanics. Ever since I was young I have always been interested in cars, science and art, which is why I wish to do automotive engineering as it is a perfect combination of all these things. I will have to sketch out designs that are suitable for modern day life and will need physics to understand the mechanics as well as an exceptional knowledge of cars, and if I find that I don't possess these skills at a satisfactory level then I am willing to learn further to accompish my goal. As Michael Jordan once said 'I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed'. It is this mentality that makes me want to do science no matter where life takes me and why I wouldn't do anything that doesn't have science as its foundations.

Thanks for reading and stick around for future blog posts...