Researchers are making progress in creating digital transistors using a material called graphene, potentially sidestepping an obstacle thought to dramatically limit the material’s use in computers and consumer electronics. Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon that conducts electricity with little resistance or heat generation. After its discovery in 2004 -- which earned a Nobel Prize in physics -- it was touted as a potential replacement for silicon, possibly leading to ultrafast devices with simplified circuits that might be less expensive to manufacture
