Richard Smalley

Diamond, for all its great beauty, is not nearly as interesting as the hexagonal plane of graphite. It is not nearly as interesting because we live in a three-dimensional space, and in diamond, each atom is surrounded in all three directions in space by a full coordination.

American Scientist

Roger Bannister

Your spikes, which were really quite long then, would catch the material of the track and your shoe would get heavier. I was simply filing them down and rubbing some graphite on the spikes. I thought I would run more effectively.

British Athlete

Peter Falk

I'm old fashioned. I really think you should know how to draw before you start painting. I use charcoal and graphite; I put a skylight in. In my house, I turned the garage into an art studio. So I'm awash in art studios.

American Actor

Andre Geim

Graphene is a single plane of graphite that has to be pulled out of bulk graphite to show its amazing properties.

Dutch Physicist

Graphite is widely used for artistic drawings; its softness produces different shades.

Artistic Medium

Graphite is often called lead, but it's actually a form of carbon, not lead.

Common Misconception

Besides pencils, graphite is used in batteries, brake linings, and lubricants.

Variety of Uses

Graphite is a non-liquid lubricant, useful where oil can’t be used.

Industrial Lubricant

Graphite remains stable at high temperatures, ideal for extreme conditions.

Temperature Resistant

Graphite conducts electricity and is used in electrodes and batteries.

Electricity Conductor

In reactors, graphite controls the fission rate by moderating neutrons.

Nuclear Use

Graphite serves as a low-absorption moderator, letting through desired neutrons.

Moderator Material

Graphite moderated reactors were instrumental in developing atomic science.

Historical Significance

 in which he wrote about how a pencil came to be made, and how nobody knows even how to make a pencil, because the people who assemble it don't know how to mine graphite, and they don't know how to fell trees and that kind of thing. And what we've done in human society, through exchange and specialization, is we've created

When ideas have sex PIPE...

 in the structure of the networks, not just in the individuals within them. So think about these two common objects. They're both made of carbon, and yet one of them has carbon atoms in it that are arranged in one particular way -- on the left -- and you get graphite, which is soft and dark.

Nicholas Christakis: The...

 using only graphite on paper. Emma McNally is one of the main leaders of this movement, and she creates these striking, imaginary landscapes, where you can really notice the influence from traditional network visualization. But networkism doesn't happen only in two dimensions.

A Visual History of...

 The fission rate is too low and the chain reaction fizzles out. The first nuclear reactor built in Chicago used graphite as a moderator to scatter and slow down neutrons just enough to increase their capture by uranium and raise the rate of fission.

How do nuclear power...

 graphite as a cheap and mechanically robust material but give you a battery that charges faster all while not sacrificing energy density or battery life so better batteries as someone who quite literally spends her time looking

How we plan to make...

 an electric car requires six times more mineral inputs than a conventional car. And this is only the start. The World Bank tells us that with the current projections, global production for minerals such as graphite and cobalt

The Blind Spots of the...

 He didn't find it as humorous as I did, anyway. OK, now, these are my sprinting legs, made of carbon graphite, like I said, and I've got to make sure I've got the right socket. No, I've got so many legs in here.

Aimee Mullins: Changing...

 or flick it away before it came in? One of the materials that can do this is a remarkable material, carbon, that has changed its form in this incredibly beautiful reaction where graphite is blasted by a vapor,

Justin Hall-Tipping:...

 down south in San Diego, and we used an exploded titanium forming method that's used in the aerospace industry. Basically what we can do, is just cut a graphite mold,

Greg Lynn: How calculus...

 The pencil is a very simple object. It's made of wood with some layers of paint an eraser and a core, which is made out of graphite, clay and water.