[AndyGoode]

This news item appeared this month:

https://www.futurity.org/quantum-physics-hall-effect-2d-nanomaterials-2096672/

Experiments with parallel layers of graphene showed that a new state of matter can be produced, one that exhibits the "fractional quantum Hall effect." Until now, only the "quantum spin Hall state" was conjectured to exist, which was one of 22 known states of matter...

22 States of Matter
Celeris
Published on May 24, 2018


Until I got halfway through high school I'd heard only of three states of matter--solid, liquid, and gas--although plasma is pretty well known these days, which goes to show that such exotic states of matter are rare (on our planet). Hundreds of other states of matter are believed to exist, and some that are listed in the above video are merely conjectured to exist.

The importance of this discovery is that error correction in quantum computers may not be necessary if such computers use this state of matter, which will greatly simplify production of quantum computers.

[OllieGee]

Oh I love love love graphene.... THE wonder material that will soon encase and revolutionize the next phase of our technological advancement (If they can just make a gigantic pencil, with a just-as-large roll of sellotape to enable the required mass-market amount of graphene to be produced (You all know this story right?) Why have the egg heads at the Graphene factory not realised this?? 

[AndyGoode]

(You all know this story right?)

No, I haven't heard that story. No harm in retelling it here.

I'm a little less enthusiastic about graphene than you are because, as you might expect, a razor blade that comes to a point that is only one atom thick is awfully sharp, to put it mildly. Sharp enough to slice right into living cells. That's what graphene can do to living things.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/miracle-material-graphene-has-dangerous-edge-9312966.html

[OllieGee]

You must know about the story of how Graphene was created:
'Graphite is the main component in pencil "lead," and lightly drawn pencil lines are able to produce small amounts of graphene.'