For all the hype around the miracle material graphene, we've yet to actually see it do much of anything, let alone change the world as we know it. So it's exciting to see a new prototype unveiled by the University of Cambridge give a sneak peak into what our graphene-powered future could look like.The video above shows an electrical piano printed onto a bit of fabric with graphene-based ink, that makes music (well, sound at least) when you touch it with your fingers. That’s worth repeating. Scientists printed out a paper-thin, bendy piano that you could play on your T-shirt via an electrical charge. Pretty rad stuff.The researchers explain how it works:These keys, working as electrodes, are connected to a simple electronic circuit-board, a battery and speaker. When a person touches a graphene electrode, the amount of electrical charge held in the key changes. This is then detected and redirected by the circuit to the speaker, creating the musical note.The high-tech toy suggests a lot about the future of electronics. A much buzzed-about “game changing” promise of graphene is that it will lead to a new breed of bendy, printable, cheap, and fast gadgets. That’s because the super-heroic material is hundreds of times stronger than steel, only one atom thick, the lightest substance yet discovered, and so flexible you can roll it up.It means it could one day be possible to print a bendy, transparent circuit board right into your palm and watch a YouTube video on your hand. Graphene-based electronic ink could force us to reimagine the entire emerging wearable tech industry, and the iPhone could become an antiquated, clunky device from a forgotten era.But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, engineers imagine printable digital displays for smart packaging to, say, prevent fraud, or printable sensors that track luggage around an airport, or heart monitors you can wear on your clothing.The big question is, when? When will we finally see this post-silicon world? Despite billions of dollars being poured into researching the miracle material by universities and governments, graphene applications are struggling to reach the commercial market. One of the problems is that it's so conductive—it conducts electrons at nearly the speed of light, a hundred times faster than any other material—it becomes unruly to use in manufacturing electronics. It's actually too conductive.Scientists are of course working to fix this problem and bring manufacturing costs down. And in the meantime, they're experimenting with the many potential uses of graphene, even beyond bendy gadgets.
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