B.“Graphene is a wonderful material，”Jeanie Lau，a professor of physics at the University of California at Riverside，told Fortune.“It conducts heat 10 times better than copper and electricity 100 times better than silicon，is transparent like plastic，extremely lightweight,extremely strong,yet flexible and elastic.In the past decade，it has taken the scientific and technology communities by storm，and has become the most promising electronic material to supplement or replace silicon.”

　　C.Graphene has already found its way into a number of compelling applications，Lau said.For instance，“since it is both transparent and electrically conductive—two attributes rarely found in the same material in nature—it has tremendous potential as the transparent electrode in monitors.displays;solar cells，and touch screens，”she explained.“Companies such as Samsung that invest heavily in this area have already secured patents，produced prototypes，and are expected to bring products to market in a few years.”Wearable electronic devices，aviation components，broadband photodetectors(光電檢測器)，radiation-resistant coatings，sensors，and energy storage are among numerous other areas of active research.Lau said.

　　D.For many researchers and investors，the ultimate application is graphene-based transistors，the building blocks of modem electronics.But getting there may take some time.

　　A child of graphite

　　E.First produced in a lab back in 2004，graphene is essentially a single layer of pure carbon atoms bonded together in a honeycomb lattice so thin it’s actually considered two-dimensional.“We generally regard anything less than 10 layers of graphene as graphene;otherwise，it’s graphite，”said Aravind Vijayaraghavan，a lecturer in nanomaterials at the University of Manchester.

　　F.Even“graphene”is a bit of an umbrella term.“To oversimplify,there are two major types of graphene，”Michael Patterson，CEO of Graphene Frontiers，said.The first：“Nanoplatelets，”which are powders or flakes made from graphite.These have been around for a while and are“not really super-sexy,”Patterson said.“You mix them into polymers(聚合物)or inks or rubbers to make them conductive.”In flake form，graphene is already on its way to becoming a commodity,Patterson added.The other type—in sheet or film form—is where graphene’s biggest promise lies.Graphene sheets have“incredible potential for electronics，”Patterson said.In the near term，that potential may manifest in situations where the quantity requirements are“not that great”and where quality or conductivity doesn’t have to be as high，such as in basic touch-screen applications，he said.Products that use graphene in this way could arrive to market in the next six to 1 2 months.

　　G.Looking a little further out，graphene can be employed in membranes used for water desalination.Lockheed-Martin already has a patented product known as Perforene.“It’s real and it works，but it won’t be economically viable until the product reaches an industrial scale where the cost is measured in pennies per square inch”rather than dollars or tens of dollars per square inch，Patterson explained.

　　“That’s where we’re working today.”

　　‘It’s expensive and low-capacity’

　　H. But use of graphene in semiconductors—the technology’s Holy Grail—is likely a decade away.“Many of the challenges presented by graphene are common to most new materials，”Paul Smith,a patent associate with the Intellectual Property Law Group at Fenwick & West，told Fortune.“The trick is figuring out how to synthesize graphene in a way that first is manufacturable beyond lab scale;second，preserves the desirable properties of the material;and third，can be integrated into a product or technology.”

　　I.Synthesizing graphene in sheet form is considerably more expensive and time-consuming than producing graphene flakes.Whereas the latter typically involves a“quick and dirty”process by which bulk graphite is disassembled into millions of tiny pieces，Lau explained，large sheets of graphene are carefully“grown”on substrates(基板)such as copper，germanium，or silicon carbide.

　　J. Graphene sheets are also prone to defects and“very difficult to make in good quality,”Ron Mertens，owner and editor of Graphene-Info.tom，said.Production capacity is also very limited.“There are thousands of small companies that can make graphene，but it’s expensive and low-capacity,”Mertens said.alround wafer measuring one inch in diameter,for instance，costs about$1 00，he added.

　　K.An even thornier obstacle on the way to graphene transistors is the fact that the material has no“band gap，”an essential property that allows transistors to be turned on and off without leaking electronic charge in the“off”state，said Elias Towe，a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

　　L.“Band-gap engineering has been and remains the biggest challenge in the development of graphene transistors and computer chips.”Lau said.It requires controlling the material almost down at the atomic level，and“that’s really pushing the edges of existing technology,”Patterson said.“In 10 years，we’11 start to see these problems solved.”

　　‘It is largely a matter of time’

　　M.If graphene is to succeed as a replacement for silicon，every unit of cost and performance will make a difference，Towe said.

　　N.“Silicon is hard to displace，with all the billions dollars of investments made in manufacturing infrastructure，”he said.“A replacement for silicon has to offer extraordinary performance at extremely rock-bottom cost to compel industry to change its way.”

　　O.Though graphene is just 10 years old—in contrast,use of silicon in transistors dates to the early 1950s—considerable progress has already been made.For example，the largest graphene sheet was produced by hand in a laboratory eight years ago;its width was less than that of a human hair.“Nowadays，roll-to-roll printing of graphene sheets up to 1 00 meters long has been achieved，”Lau said.“With the increasing interest，investment，and research in graphene-based technology,I think it is largely a matter of time before the economy of scale kicks in and truly low-cost，large-scale production ofhigh-quality graphene is accomplished，”she added.

　　46.Nanoplatelet is the powder-or flake-type of graphene that has been used for some time to make conductors and that is being launched on the market.

　　47.To encourage industry to replace silicon with graphene，it is necessary for graphene to provide high property at an extremely low expense.

　　48.While graphene flakes are roughly processed with bulk graphite，graphene sheets are carefully made on substrates like copper，germanium，or silicon carbide.

　　49.In the past ten years.graphene has become a hot topic among the scientific and technology groups.

　　50.Perforene won’t come into the market before it can be manufactured at a very low cost.

　　51.Despite of a much younger age than silicon，great progress has been made in graphene;and with ever increasing interest，investment and research in graphene technology,it’s probable to manufacture cost- effective graphene of high quality.

　　52.Graphene has been attempted to be used for plenty of noticeable applications.

　　53.Yet it still needs to take ten years for graphene to be used in semiconductors，which lies at the heart of the technology.

　　54.With today’s technology,it is still impossible to control material down at the atomic level.

　　55.Elias Towe pointed out that having no“band gap”，the dispensable feature of transistors，makes it more difficult to produce graphene transistors.

　　46.Nanoplatelet is the powder-or flake-type of graphene that has been used for some time to make conductors and that is being launched on the market.納米片是粉末狀或者薄片狀的石墨烯，被用于制作導(dǎo)體已經(jīng)有一段時(shí)間了，而且開始被推向市場。

　　47.To encourage industry to replace silicon with graphene.it is necessary for graphene to provide high property at an extremely low expense.為了讓業(yè)界用石墨烯代替硅，就必須讓石墨烯在造價(jià)極低的同時(shí)保持高性能。

　　48.While graphene flakes are roughly processed with bulk graphite，graphene sheets are carefully made on substrates like copper,germanium，or silicon carbide.石墨烯薄片是由塊狀石墨粗略加工而成的，而石墨烯薄膜則是在銅，鍺或者碳化硅等基板上仔細(xì)加工而成的。

　　49.In the past ten years，graphene has become a hot topic among the scientific and technology groups.在過去的十年間，石墨烯已經(jīng)成了科學(xué)技術(shù)界的熱點(diǎn)話題。

　　50.Perforene won’t come into the market before it Can be manufactured at a very low cost.Perforene在能夠以低成本大量生產(chǎn)之前是不會(huì)上市的。

　　51.Despite of a much younger age than silicon，great progress has been made in graphene;and with ever increasing interest，investment and research in graphene technology,it’s probable to manufacture cost-effective graphene ofhigh quA.ity.雖然出現(xiàn)得比硅要晚很多年，石墨烯仍取得了很大進(jìn)展;而且隨著石墨烯技術(shù)利益，投資及研究的日益增加，很有可能以低成本生產(chǎn)大量高質(zhì)量的石墨烯。

　　52.Graphene has been attempted to be used for plenty of noticeable applications.石墨烯已經(jīng)被嘗試著用于許多引人注意的應(yīng)用程序。

　　53.Yet it still needs to take ten years for graphene to be used in semiconductors，which lies at the heart of the technology.但是，將石墨烯用于半導(dǎo)體制造(技術(shù)的核心)仍需要十年的時(shí)間。

　　54.With today’s technology,it is still impossible to control material down at the atomic level.以今天的技術(shù)還無法將材料控制在原子層面。

　　55.Elias Towe pointed out that having no“band gap”，the dispensable feature of transistors，makes it more difficult to produce graphene transistors.艾利亞斯•陶威指出，由于缺少晶體管必備的“帶隙”，使得制造石墨烯晶體管更加困難。

　　World Must Adapt to Unknown Climate Future

　　A.There is still great uncertainty about the impacts of climate change，according to the latest report from the Intefgovernmental Panel on Climate Change，released today.So if we are to survive and prosper, rather than trying to fend off specific threats like cyclones，we must build flexible and resilient(有彈性的)societies.

　　B.Today’s report is the second of three instalments(分期連載)of the IPCC’s fifth assessment of climate change.The first instalment，released last year,covered the physical science of climate change.It stated with increased certainty that climate change is happenin9，and that it is the result of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions.The new report focuses on the impacts of climate change and how to adapt to them.The third instalment，on how to cut greenhouse gas emissions，comes out in April.

　　C.The latest report backs off from some of the predictions made in the previous IPCC report，in 2007.During the final editing process.the authors also retreated from many of the more confident projections from the final draft，leaked last year.The IPCC now says it often cannot predict which specific impacts of climate change—such as droughts，storms or floods——will hit particular places.

　　D.Instead，the IPCC focuses on how people call adapt in the face of uncertainty,arguing that we must become resilient against diverse changes in the climate.“The natural human tendency is to want things to be clear and simple.”says the report’s co-chair Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford，Califomia.“And one of the messages that doesn’t just come from the IPCC，it comes from history,is that the future doesn’t ever turn out the way you think it will be.”That means，F(xiàn)ield adds，that‘'being prepared for a wide range of possible futures is iust always smart”.

　　E.Here New Scientist breaks down what is new in the report，and what it means for humanity’s efforts to cope with a changing climate.A companion article，“How climate change will affect where you live”，highlights some of the key impacts that different regions are facing.What has changed in the new IPCC report?

　　F.In essence，the predictions are intentionally vaguer.Much of the firlner language from the 2007 report about exactly what kind of weather to expect，and how changes witl affect people，has been replaced with more cautious statements.The scale and timing of many regional impacts，and even the form of some，now appear uncertain.

　　G.For example，the 2007 report predicted that the intensity of cyclones over Asia would increase by 10to 20 per cent.The new report makes no such claim.Similarly,the last report estimated that climate change would force up to a quarter of a billion Africans into water shortage by the end of this decade.The new report avoids using such firm numbers.

　　H.The report has even watered down many of the more confident predictions that appeared in the lcaked drafts.References to“hundreds of millions”of people being affected by rising sea levels have been removed from the summary,as have statements about the impact of warmer temperatures on crops.“I think it's gone back a bit，”says Jean Palutikof of Griffith University in Brisbane，Queensland，Australia，who worked on the 2007 report.“That may be a good thing.In the fourth [climate assessment]we tried to do things that weren’t really possible and the fifth has sort of rebalanced the whole thing.”

　　So do we know less than we did before?

　　I.Not really,says Andy Pitman of the University of New South Wales in Sydney,Australia.It is just more rigorous language.“Pointing to the sign of the change，rather than the precise magnitude of the change，is scientifically more defensible，”he says.

　　J.We also know more about what we don’t know,says David Karoly at the University of Melbourne.“There is now a better understanding of uncertainties in regional climate proj ections at decadal timescales(時(shí)標(biāo)).”

　　Are we less confident about all the impacts of climate change?

　　K.Not quite.There are still plenty of confident predictions of impacts in the reponv—at least in the draft chapters that were lcaked last year,and which are expected to be roughly the same when they are released later this week.These include more rain in parts ofAfrica，more heatwaves in southem Europe，and more frequent droughts in Australia(see“How climate change will affect where you live”).It also remains clear that the seas are rising.How do we prepare in cases in which there is low confidence about the effects of climate change?

　　L.That’s exactly what this report deals with.In many cases，the uncertainty is a matter of magnitude，so the choices are not hard.“It doesn’t really matter if the car hits the wall at 70 or 80 kilometres an hour,”says Karoly.“You should still wear your seat belt.”So when it comes to sea.1evel rise or heatwaves，the uncertainty does not change what we need to do：build sea walls，use efficient cooling and so forth.

　　M.But in some cases——such as African rainfall，which could go up or down——the models are not giving us great advice.so all we know is that things will change.“We are not certain about the precise nature of regional change，but we are absolutely certain there are going to be profound changes in many regions，”says Pitman.Even then，there are things we can do that will always help.A big one is getting people out of poverty.The report says poverty makes other impacts worse and many suggested adaptations are about alleviating it.The IPCC suggests giving disadvantaged groups more of a voice，helping them move when they need to and strengthening social safety nets.

　　N.What’s more，all countries should diversify their economies，rather than relying on a few main sources of income that could flood or blow ovel Countries should also find ways to become less vulnerable to the current climate variability.That means improving the way they govem resources like water,the report says.

　　O.In short，we must become more resilient.That would be wise even if the climate was stable.Our current infrastructure often cannot deal with the current climate，says Karoly,pointing to events like the recent UK floods.“We don’t have a resilient system now,even in extremely well developed countries.”

　　46.Focusing on the clue of climate change instead of the severity of climate effects is scientifically more reasonable.

　　47.IPCC’s new report has removed some of the predictions that appeared in the former one released in2007.

　　48.One of the lessons both IPCC and history has taught us is that future never appears as you expect it to be.

　　49.The IPCC’s latest report has weakened many firmer projections written in the leaked drafts.

　　50.The first of IPCC’s three instalments has focused on the current climate conditions and the main reason for those conditions.

　　51.The most important thing for us to do is to get people rich.

　　52.Sometimes the uncertainty is just about the extent of climate effects，thus the choices.of what we should doisquite easy.

　　53.Countries must make their economies varied and improve the way of controlling the recourses in order to beRer deal with climate change.

　　54.The new IPCC report has replaced some more confident statements from the 2007 report with more careful expressions.

　　55.There are still many of firm statements about the climate effects in the new report，which are generally the same as they were in the draft chapters.

　　46.Focusing on the clue of climate change instead of the severity of climate effects is scientifically more reasonable.主要集中于氣候變化的跡象而不是氣候變化帶來的影響的嚴(yán)重性，在科學(xué)上更有說服力。

　　47.IPCC’s new report has removed some of the predictions that appeared in the former one released in 2007.IPCC的最新報(bào)告中去掉了一些出現(xiàn)在2007年發(fā)布的報(bào)告中的預(yù)測。

　　48.One of the lessons both IPCC and history has taught US is that future never appears as you expect it to be.IPCC和歷史都曾教給我們的教訓(xùn)是，未來絕不會(huì)是你想象的那樣。

　　49.The IPCC’s latest report has weakened many firmer projections written in the leaked drafts.IPCC的最新報(bào)告淡化了許多在泄露的草案中出現(xiàn)的比較肯定的預(yù)測。

　　50.The first of IPCC’s three instalments has focused on the current climate conditions and the main reason for those conditions.IPCC三期連載報(bào)告中的第一份主要講述了當(dāng)前的氣候狀況以及出現(xiàn)這些情況的主要原因。

　　51.The most important thing for us to do is to get people rich.我們要做的最重要的事情就是讓人們變得富有。

　　52.Sometimes the uncertainty is just about the extent of climate effects，thus the choices of what we should do is quite easy.有時(shí)候這種不確定性就只是氣候影響的程度，所以選擇我們應(yīng)當(dāng)做什么還是相當(dāng)簡單的。

　　53.Countries must make their economies varied and improve the way of controlling the recourses in order to better deal with climate change.各國必須使經(jīng)濟(jì)多樣化并且要改善對資源的管理方法，以更好地應(yīng)對氣候變化。

　　54.The new IPCC report has replaced some more confident statements from the 2007 report with more careful expressions.IPCC的新報(bào)告中去掉了2007年報(bào)告中較為肯定的表述，取而代之的是更加謹(jǐn)慎的表達(dá)。

　　55.There are still many of firm statements about the climate effects in the new report,which are generally the same as they were in the draft chapters.在新的報(bào)告中仍然還有一些與草案章節(jié)中大致相同的肯定表述。