An innovative use of graphene, and of a dog:
“Graphene Earphones: An Entertainment for Both Humans and Animals,” He Tian , Cheng Li , Mohammad Ali Mohammad , Ya-Long Cui , Wen-Tian Mi , Yi Yang , Dan Xie , and Tian-Ling Ren, ACS Nano, epub April 26, 2014. (Thanks to investigator Wei Ting for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, report:
“Here, we show that graphene earphones, packaged into commercial earphone casings can play sounds ranging from 20 Hz to 1 MHz. By using a one-step laser scribing technology, wafer-scale flexible graphene earphones can be obtained in 25 minutes…. Our numerical calculations shows that the sound frequency emitted by graphene could reach up to 1 MHz. In addition, we have demonstrated that a dog wearing the graphene earphone could also be trained and controlled by 35 kHz sound waves. Our results show that graphene could be widely used to produce earphones for both humans and animals…. Communication with the subject through the earphone in ultrasound. The dog is initially sitting down. After receiving a familiar 35 kHz signal, it stands up. “
Here’s further detail from the study:
