Wonder Materials – IMAGE CAPTIONS

Wonder Materials – IMAGE CAPTIONS
Raw files can be found in our Wonder Materials Dropbox folder.
CAPTION: Wonder Materials “glittering graphene”
CREDIT: Angela Moore for Museum of Science and Industry
CAPTION: Scientists at the National Graphene Institute in Manchester push the boundaries of graphene.
CREDIT: David Shaw for Museum of Science and Industry
CAPTION: This Scotch tape was used to clean graphite samples in preparation for microscopy before it
became the unlikely centre of a major scientific breakthrough. The low-cost, simple ‘Scotch Tape method’
helped scientific research into graphene and 2D materials grow rapidly. Hundreds of labs around the world
now deal with different aspects of graphene research and with other single-layered materials. CREDIT:
Museum of Science and Industry
Microscope Image 1
CAPTION: Optical microscopy image of graphene, 2016. This is graphene magnified one hundred times. The
single layer graphene is the triangle section. The darker areas are where two, three or more layers of
graphene are forming graphite. Credit: Image courtesy of Colin Robert Woods, University of Manchester.
Microscope Image 2
CAPTION: Scanning transmission electron microscope image showing a graphene sheet just one atom thick.
Small graphene clusters which make the material thicker are visible as brighter areas around the edge of the
image. Credit: Image courtesy of Sarah Haigh, University of Manchester and Quentin Ramasse, EPSRC
SuperSTEM Laboratory, Daresbury.
Microscope Image 3
CAPTION: Scanning transmission electron microscope image showing the hexagonal atomic structure of
graphene. Each white spot is a single carbon atom. Credit: Image courtesy of Sarah Haigh, University of
Manchester and Quentin Ramasse, EPSRC SuperSTEM Laboratory, Daresbury.
Panos 1
CAPTION: Gamini Ajantha Bandara, Mining Operations Manager, Global Graphene Industries, Sri Lanka. Not
all graphite is the same. Miners at the Queen’s Graphite Mine in the heart of Sri Lanka unearth high purity
graphite which is particularly great for turning into graphene. They get orders for their crystalline vein
graphite from businesses and researchers making and using graphene all over the world. CREDIT: image
courtesy of Panos Pictures for Museum of Science and Industry
Panos 2
CAPTION: E. George Aniel, Supervisor for Veolia 30, Masdar desalination plant, Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
The Masdar Institute are researching ways that graphene-enabled ion exchange membranes can be used to
make desalination faster, cheaper and use less energy. This could have a huge impact in parts of the world
where drinking water is scarce. The project is sponsored by Veolia Water. CREDIT: image courtesy of Panos
Pictures for Museum of Science and Industry
Panos 3
CAPTION: Li Ming Ming, assembly operator at the Hi-P factory, Fairphone, China. Fairphone are a
transparent company aiming to have a positive impact at every stage of the process, from mining right
through to design, manufacturing and life cycle, while expanding the market for products that put ethical
values first. Graphene and other 2D materials could be part of a fairer future for our beloved electronic
gadgets. Graphene has the potential to lead to unbreakable screens and incredibly long-lasting batteries.
CREDIT: image courtesy of Panos Pictures for Museum of Science and Industry
Explorers 1
Dr Melina Blees of The McEuen Research Group, Cornell University, USA, stretching a paper kirigami model.
‘I’m both a scientist and an artist. Using the idea of kirigami, I get to use art and science together to think
differently about graphene.’ Graphene behaves like paper, just on a much smaller scale. Kirigami is the
ancient Japanese art of paper-cutting. Dr Blees and her team and found that by doing the same thing with
graphene, they could make tiny springs and hinges that could one day be used to make mini-machines.
CREDIT: Dr Melina Blees of The McEuen Research Group, Cornell University, USA
Explorers 1
‘We use photomasks like this to make tiny graphene versions of the paper kirigami models we’ve tested.’ A
graphene kirigami model is pulled and stretched by a ‘micromanipulator’, a high-precision robot with a
needle attached. The ratio of stretchability to bendability of graphene (known as its Föppl–von Kármán
number) is almost exactly the same as that of standard printer paper. This means that graphene will
crumple, bend and respond just like paper.
CREDIT: Dr Melina Blees of The McEuen Research Group, Cornell University, USA
Explorers 2
Assistant Professor Pinshane Huang, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois,
USA. ‘My name is Pinshane, and I’m a photographer of atoms. I invent new ways to see and understand
materials at the level of single atoms. Seeing the atoms in graphene for the first time was one of the most
thrilling experiences I have had as a scientist. I wondered how changing one individual atom can control how
a material behaves. Graphene is perfect for exploring this idea because it’s so thin that adjusting just a few
atoms can have a huge effect on its properties.’ CREDIT: Assistant Professor Pinshane Huang, Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois.
Explorers 2
‘Graphene’s patchwork quilt’ - diffraction-filtered electron micrograph of graphene grains. These images use
a powerful electron microscope to visualize how a single layer of carbon atoms align on a copper surface to
form graphene. This imaging method has helped scientists design stronger and higher-quality graphene
sheets on up to metre scales, potentially leading to atom-thick electronics. This image depicts a patch of
graphene that is 12 by 20 micrometres wide, less than half the size of a typical pollen grain, and only one
atom thick. CREDIT: Cornell University/Pinshane Y Huang, Arend M van der Zande, Carlos S Ruiz-Vargas,
Jiwoong Park, Paul L McEuen and David A Muller
Explorers 3
Dr Catharina Paukner, Chief Scientist and Co- Founder, Cambridge Nanosystems, a company with a unique
way of making graphene. ‘We found a simple, cost-effective way to create large quantities of graphene from
harmful greenhouse gases like methane that come from waste food and cows. Our simple new process can
be set up anywhere in the world where these greenhouse gases are produced. We can reduce harmful
emissions and at the same time create tonnes of high-quality graphene for use in new products. Reliable,
standardised supplies of graphene are essential in order for it to become a commercial success. The green
technology we have developed enables all the awesome possibilities graphene offers to become everyday
reality.’ Image: Cambridge Nanosystems
As old as the hills - Female workers in a small Keswick pencil factory, late 19th century.
CREDIT Keswick Museum and Art Gallery
Poet and playwright Lemn Sissay MBE
CREDIT Karin Albinsson, Jason Lock Productions
A View of the Black Lead Mine in Cumberland, by Maria Katharina Prestel, 1788
This print was made by Maria Katharina Prestel (1747–94) after an oil painting by Philipp Jacques de
Loutherbourg (1740–1812). It is a rare glimpse of this mine, which was first recorded in operation in 1555.
CREDIT The British Museum
Graphene, by Chad Hagen, 2014
This print first appeared in the New Yorker. ‘I loved the idea of the discovery of graphene being almost a
magical accident.’
CREDIT Chad Hagen, 2014
Andre and Kostya, 2010
Andre (right) and Kostya (left) in their laboratory at the University of Manchester, 2010.
Credit: Yana Audas, © Nobel Media 2010
Andre with his father Konstantin, 1966
Konstantin Geim was a maths professor before the Second World War. When war broke out he was sent to a
labour camp in Siberia because he was an ethnic German. ‘Perseverance and hard work are the qualities I
probably inherited from him.’
Source: Professor Andre Geim
Source: Professor Andre Geim
Kostya (steering) and a friend racing on an ice track, 1980
Kostya’s father involved him in motor sports from the age of 5, particularly in ice speedway and karting. As
well as racing the vehicles, Kostya worked as a mechanic, making and modifying parts of the machines with
his own hands.
Source: Professor Konstantin Novoselov
Kostya at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Nijmegen, 2000
‘Many experiments had to be done during the night, to benefit from the cheap electricity to run the very
powerful magnets. The long nights were interrupted by technological breaks, during which students had
some fun (not to be told to their PhD advisers).’
After Seathwaite, by Mary Griffiths, 2015
Inspired by the relationship between the history of graphite and graphene, Manchester-based artist Mary
Griffiths made this piece by building up a shiny layer of graphite and etching into it a graphene-inspired
hexagon.
Inscribed graphite on gesso board
CREDIT Mary Griffiths
Levitating frog (demonstration of diamagnetic levitation)
Ten years before his Nobel Prize, Andre was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for levitating a frog with
magnets. Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded to honour achievements that make people laugh, and then think. They
celebrate the unusual and the imaginative. Andre is the only individual to have been awarded both a Nobel
and an Ig Nobel Prize, and is equally proud of both. He is keen to encourage curiosity-driven research.
‘Something random, simple, maybe a bit weird – even ridiculous. Without it, there are no discoveries.’
One Friday evening, Andre decided to pour a bottle of water into the centre of one of his lab’s powerful
electromagnets to see what would happen. To his surprise it levitated, as did cheese, strawberries and a
frog. Most thought that water’s magnetism, billions of times weaker than iron’s, was not strong enough to
counter gravity. Andre was able to demonstrate its true force.
Andre won the award for using magnets to levitate a frog. ‘It is a ridiculous experiment. But nobody had
come up with the same stupid idea.’
Source: Andre Geim
Sample of monolayer graphene, with silver epoxy. Handmade circuit on a yellow chip holder.
CREDIT Science Museum Group collection
Test image from Random International’s research explorations following their residency at National
Graphene Institute
CREDIT Random International