• A Single Box of Girl Scout Cookies Could Yield $15 Billion Worth of Graphene
    53 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Next time you’re inhaling an entire box of Girl Scout shortbread cookies, just think of the potential you’re wasting: a full $15 billion worth of graphene. At least, that’s the estimate given by a team of Rice University researchers working on a dare. Published as part of a paper recently published by ACS Nano, the Rice lab’s work on Girl Scout Cookies began when lab chemist James Tour mentioned at a meeting that his team had turned table sugar to graphene--a one-atom-thick layer of carbon possessing remarkable properties of strength and conductivity. He claimed that he and his grad students could grow graphene from any carbon source, and it just so happened there were Girl Scout Cookies being passed around the meeting. And so a challenge was born. The lab invited Girl Scout Troop 25080 to join them in Rice’s nano lab to see exactly how cookies become a prized version of carbon. In their demo, they made graphene from a range of materials--grass, chocolate, a cockroach leg, even dog excrement (special thanks to Sid Vicious the mini dachshund) to show that high-quality graphene is basically waiting to be extracted from all kinds of everyday materials. To make graphene, the Rice team uses a copper foil and a super-hot argon and hydrogen gas oven burning at more than 1,900 degrees. In this process, the object it placed on one side of the foil and, under high heat, begins to decompose. A thin sheet of graphene forms on the other side of the foil, while the residues and impurities remain on the other side. Two of the grad students in Tour’s lab did some math given the current commercial price for quality graphene--about $250 per two-inch square--and figured that a box of shortbread cookies could generate a roughly $15 billion profit if converted to graphene. Of course, that has everything to do with scale, supply, and demand. Right now, graphene is difficult and expensive to produce in large quantities. A box of shortbread could yield a sheet of graphene that would cover three football fields if the means of production were there. And of course if supply were that inexpensive the price would drop substantially. In other words, the team was trying to demonstrate that--given better manufacturing means of producing graphene in bulk--sources of graphene are all around us, not that you should buy Thin Mints as long-term investment. Although in this economy you might actually come out ahead.[/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-08/single-box-girl-scout-cookies-could-yield-15-billion-worth-graphene[/url]
Brb ordering girl scout cookies
But I like Thin Mints
[QUOTE]He claimed that he and his grad students could grow graphene from any carbon source[/QUOTE] I feel I can't emphasize enough how much I want them to SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.
Shut up and make my graphene!
Not worth shit if we can just convert large amounts of it from any carbon source, though. The more the tech advances, the less it's worth, and that 15 billion would be 15 cents.
i'd still pay 15 billion for girl scout cookies, they're delicious
[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];31596488']Not worth shit if we can just convert large amounts of it from any carbon source, though. The more the tech advances, the less it's worth, and that 15 billion would be 15 cents.[/QUOTE] But it's not YET
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;31596194] even dog excrement (special thanks to Sid Vicious the mini dachshund) [/QUOTE] Holy fuck I might know who donated that.
If they make the production process cheaper, people will be essentially shitting gold.
[QUOTE=Forumaster;31597120]If they make the production process cheaper, people will be essentially shitting gold.[/QUOTE]But then its worth will go down.
I'd rather have the girl scout cookies tbh, those motherfuckers are delicious
[QUOTE=ButtsexV3;31597638]I'd rather have the girl scout cookies tbh, those motherfuckers are delicious[/QUOTE] Buy two boxes. Eat one, sell the other, use billions to buy all cookies in existence.
[QUOTE=Jund;31596278]But I like Thin Mints[/QUOTE] Cookie master race
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;31596297]I feel I can't emphasize enough how much I want them to SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.[/QUOTE] Agree. AgreeAgreeAgreeAgree...
I'm going to donate my body for graphene production.
Not exactly surprising given how small Graphene actually is. It's almost like saying you can fit billions of Hydrogen atoms into a soda can. It's just not that impressive. And they aren't even measuring in quantity of Graphene, just the value of it in dollars.
Fuck them I'm going to eat these chocolate covered mint girlscout cookies and I'm going to fucking [B]LOVE[/B] it.
[IMG]http://www.aboveallsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/easy-money-man-rain-money.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://justjennrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/thin-mints.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://thebsreport.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/obama-pondering1.jpg?w=213&h=263[/IMG]
fuck you I'm eating Thin Mints until I vomit
I'm guessing now is time to buy graphene stocks?
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;31596315]Shut up and make my graphene![/QUOTE] Can't you get graphene by just putting adhesive tape on graphite (like in your pencils) and then pulling away?
[QUOTE=Lebowski;31599250]I'm guessing now is time to buy graphene stocks?[/QUOTE] I thought you buy stocks when they are low and sell them when they are high? More like buy stocks of grass and dog poo and girl scout cookies
[QUOTE=Forumaster;31597120]If they make the production process cheaper, people will be essentially shitting gold.[/QUOTE] "When shit becomes valuable, the poor will be born without assholes" - Brazilian proverb.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;31599983]"When shit becomes valuable, the poor will be born without assholes" - Brazilian proverb.[/QUOTE] The brazilian earned my respect
[QUOTE=Forumaster;31597120]If they make the production process cheaper, people will be essentially shitting gold.[/QUOTE] Well no because when they do there will be more supply.
I've been wondering, is graphene any good at making armour?
I don't know why you're all so down in the dumps about it's price prospectively falling by a lot. If anything it's great, because it means a lot more graphene for everyone. Which also means there's a much better chance of good applications coming out of it.
[QUOTE=ThatHippyMan;31598181]I'm going to donate my body for graphene production.[/QUOTE] Why would they want to use your body when they could just as easily make it from trees or just about any carbon based item a lot easier (like coal and diamond)
And that's the way the cookie crumbles. [editline]8th August 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=ironman17;31601334]I've been wondering, is graphene any good at making armour?[/QUOTE] Making a wearable suit out of graphene is about as impossible as making a spaceship out of bacon.
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