Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Graphene



GRAPHENE

Isaiah 46:1-10

Isaiah 46:5:  “To whom will you compare Me or count Me equal?  To whom will you liken Me that we may be compared?”


            Resolve 2 B Blessed devotion showed that God gives His kids free will.  We use that free will when God challenges us to decide for ourselves whom we will serve, whom we adore most in all the world. 

            Who do you love most?  God is a jealous God.  He will not accept second place in anyone’s heart.  But God has also given His kids unique gifts and passions to pursue.  These gifts are talents we use to work at various jobs.   
            These gifts also enable us to serve God by helping people.  The church also needs people to serve in many ways: teaching, managing, answering phones or typing.   
 
            People can get passionate about their work.  Passion drive people to excel in their chosen fields.  Once in a while, a “miracle” is discovered.  Physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov derived a substance from graphite, called graphene, at the University of Manchester on October 22, 2004.    




Graphene as a strongly crumpled sheet on a silicon wafer viewed by scanning electron micrograph

            Geim wondered…is it possible to polish, or shave a graphite block down to 10-100 layers thick…then study its properties?  The best attempt his team achieved was 1,000 layers thick.  Then Geim had an idea to use Scotch tape to peel away the top layer.  Flakes of graphite adhered to the tape.  The process repeated many more times to achieve thin layers of flakes attached to the tape.  He dissolved the tape into a liquid that eventually yielded ultra-thin layers of graphite just 10 layers thick. 
            Further refinements rolled out the first graphene sheets. “We fooled nature by first making a three-dimensional material, which is graphite, and then pulling an individual layer out of it,” said Geim.

            Graphene is a million times thinner than paper, stronger than a diamond, and more conductive than copper.  Graphene is one atom thick—perhaps the thinnest material in the universe.  It forms a high-quality crystal lattice, with consistent properties throughout the structure.

Take Home Nugget

            Danger Andre Geim!  When people are drawn intensively into a project, attain wild success, then forget to thank God, God is not impressed.  If Andre Geim is so proud of his own genius that he doesn’t give God the credit for his success, he worships himself.  Who gave Andre the intellect to create something magnificently new and wonderful in the first place?  
            When someone or something becomes more important to us than God, we worship an idol.  Even if that idol is ourselves.

The TV show “American Idol” should sound the alarm that we are dangerously close to substituting others and “things” for worshipping God.
           
Adapted from Our Daily Bread devotional magazine.  “Miracle Material.”  Mart Dehaan.  July 23, 2015.

J.D. Griffith







                               Written for http://www.Biblestudyforkids.com

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