The 2010 Nobel Prize winners in physics received Air Force funding to mature the research that earned them the prize. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both from the University of Manchester, will be honored in December in Stockholm, Sweden, for successfully isolating and measuring the properties of a single atomic sheet of graphite, called graphene, in 2004. Graphene is stronger than steel, yet flexible and stretchable. Later in 2008, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s European Office of Aerospace Research and Development in London funded the two scientists’ activities in areas like improving graphene’s electrical quality. “Graphene is an amazing material, and it has wide-ranging promise for Air Force applications in areas such as low power and microelectronics, terahertz sources and sensors, and flexible compact displays,” said Lt. Col. Scott Dudley, AFOSR’s physics program manager. (AFOSR report by Maria Callier)
As the Air Force readied for its June 21-22 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the service was also putting its Agile Combat Employment strategy into action, dispersing combat aircraft and Airmen from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in preparation for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack. Some defense experts say…
