• Graphene is a sheet of carbon, just one atom thick, recently produced in the lab in micron-sized areas, and with great promise as a starting point for new electronic devices [Meyer et al, Nature 446, p. 60 (2007)]
• The experimental samples were unexpectedly found to be rippled,  with bumps 20-200 Angstroms long and 10 Angstroms high.
• We propose that these ripples are due to small internal expansions of the graphene sheet caused by random attachment of impurities such as OH.

We have also developed a theory for the fracture of graphene. It is published here Here is a movie of graphene fracturing..