MATERIALS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD

From flexible gadgets to cloaking devices and living concrete, the future is set to be transformed. A quiet
revolution is currently under way in labs around the world. Scientists are finding ways to manipulate matter at
increasingly small scales. This revolution is giving us substances with properties that were once confined to the
pages of science fiction books. But these materials are more than just scientific curiosities – they are genuinely
useful, to the point that as applications start to emerge, they will radically change our world.
Imagine a material that could stop a speeding bullet travelling at 350 meters per second even when it’s little
more than 3cm thick. If this material makes up the windscreen of your presidential limousine or the armoured
troop vehicle you’re travelling in, it can save your life. The material in question is polyurethane block
copolymer. Its ability to seal up at the point of entry is explained, according to Professor Ned Thomas, an
engineer at Rice University in Houston, by the fact that it melts as the bullet makes contact at high speeds. This
seems to play a part in arresting the bullet, dissipating the energy. It then reseals, closing the gap left behind,
taking back its original form. This is a sequence of events Thomas has only recently been able to fathom by
studying the material under an electron microscope. Moreover, polyurethane could end up in body armour and
even on the outside of spacecraft and satellites, absorbing space junk and other projectiles that might otherwise
cause serious damage.
Another innovation comes with metamaterials which have the ability of bending light waves to make things
disappear. Metamaterials get their incredible properties not from their many component parts, but from the
complicated ways these parts are formed. It’s this mysterious architecture that gives them properties that aren’t
found in nature. A key target for materials scientists is the invisibility cloak, which would come with a myriad of
military and consumer uses. To become a cloak, the metamaterial needs to contain nanostructures that give it a
negative refractive index, allowing light to be bent unnaturally so it entirely passes around an object. If done
successfully, this could make the object such as an aircraft or even a person invisible. However remarkable this
might sound, it is hardly science fiction. Scientists have already endorsed the principle. So far, however, they
have had more success in bending microwaves than visible light. And this wave bending has been achieved with
large, desk-mounted constructions that can only make objects of a given dimension disappear. However, in
November 2012, researchers at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and Duke University in the US
announced they have developed a metamaterial cloak that’s able to adapt to changes in the object’s shape.
However, the changes could be no more than 10mm and it still only works with microwave-frequency light.
Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has been receiving great attention from the materials science. But a
substance with a similar-sounding name, silicene, will ultimately take the glory by revolutionizing the
electronics industry. “Silicene is the silicon counterpart of graphene,” explains Associate Professor Yukiko
Yamada-Takamura at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology who is a world leader in silicene
research. While graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms, silicene is a single layer of silicon. In many ways
silicene behaves like graphene – it’s highly electrically conductive for instance, allowing electrons to flow
through it almost unhindered. But it has a crucial advantage over its carbon counterpart – being silicon-based it
is highly well-suited with existing silicon circuitry. That means less research time to bring new silicene-based
products to market and lower manufacturing costs. It will also have the same benefits as graphene – fast
computational speed and little energy lost as heat. So in the long run it is very likely to be silicene supercharging
your smartphone, not graphene. Silicene’s moment of glory is some way off – it was only created for the first
time last year by researchers in Germany. Currently there are hundreds of registered products ranging from
smartphones to television screens and GPS devices that are making use of graphene. But ultimately, it is silicene
that will have the biggest impact on our lives.

[Link]
İngilizce öğrenmek ile sınav geçmek arasında fark vardır.
Materyal kullanım hakkı Test Atölyesi’ne aittir. Yazılı izin olmadan kısmen ya da tamamen kullanılamaz.
1. Which of the following is NOT stated in paragraph 1?
a. That some experimental studies cannot go beyond science fiction
b. Some examples of future applications of new materials
c. That some labs have already started radical experiments
d. Some clues about to what degree our lives might alter

2. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of polyurethane according to paragraph 2?

a. No observable damage is seen after an object hits into it.
b. It has a potential use as a bullet-proof glass or jacket
c. It has the ability of restoring itself to its original form
d. Melting is the only irreparable damage a fast-hitting object can lead to

3. The word fathom in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by ----.

a. put up b. comprehend c. call for d. disprove

4. We understand from paragraph 3 that ----.

a. how their parts are constructed does not play a significant role in making metamaterials
b. that light passes around an object is what lies behind the principle of invisibility
c. from current research results, it seems pretty unlikely that scientists will be able to make real objects disappear from
sight
d. studies in South Korea and US failed to produce a metamaterial cloak despite changes in the object’s shape.

5. The word endorsed in paragraph 3 could best be replaced by ----.

a. demonstrated b. turned into c. contained d. rejected

6. According to the last paragraph, which of the following characteristics is or will NOT be the same in graphene
and silicene?
a. electrical conductivity c. fast computational speed
b. manufacturing costs d. little energy lost as heat

7. Which of the following use of materials is NOT in experimental stage?

a. invisibility cloak c. use of silicene in smartphone batteries
b. using polyurethane as a protective shield d. use of graphene in charging smartphones

8. It seems that one common feature of all the materials mentioned in the text is that ----.
a. they are all nanosized materials c. they are all in testing stage
b. they are exceeding the limits of nature d. they might involve some risks

Key: 1a 2d 3b 4b 5a 6b 7d 8a

[Link]
İngilizce öğrenmek ile sınav geçmek arasında fark vardır.
Materyal kullanım hakkı Test Atölyesi’ne aittir. Yazılı izin olmadan kısmen ya da tamamen kullanılamaz.