Such a shame graphene didn't blow up like it was hyped to. I remember hearing it was going to be the new laser. That's probably too extreme, but i wonder if it's just a material that we discovered "too soon" and quickly it will have tons of applications.
The radioactivity of uranium was discovered in 1896, and it took nearly 50 years to make its killer app. But it sure made an explosive debut (sorry Japan). Chemistry and materials engineering just takes longer than software dev.
Developments in the physical world take longer than in software. A lot of things are overhyped because people don’t understand the difference between a controlled experiment and a finished industrial product. But it’s not because the hype decreases that we won’t find uses in the future. So yeah, graphite was overhyped, pretty much like high temperature superconductors or other scientific fads of the last 50-odd years. This does not mean that we will never get anything useful out of this (high temperature superconductors found some use cases about 40 years after they were cool and new; there are many other examples).
It's a discovery that was hyped way too early and way too widely in order to drive research grants. I hope this behavior stops but unless incentives change it will likely only increase.
Studied photonics/laser physics in college, and my understanding is that lasers took a long time before being useful also. Only with the advent of laser diodes did they really take off for digital media and communications.
