Emirati babies traditionally slept in wooden cradles which hung either from roof or tent poles. In cooler days they might swing gently from the branch of nearby tree, safe from passing snakes or scorpions. It was the duty of any passing adult to give them a gentle rock.
This version, inside an arish palm frond home in Liwa in 1975, is a more technologically advanced model, with its own built-in swing. But the principle is the same.
In those times, nappies - both disposable and washable - were also unknown. Instead, babies were laid on a bed of sand, which absorbed everything nicely. As a result, nappy rash - a real hazard in this climate - was largely unknown.
Right up until the 1960s, babies were also swaddled, an ancient practise of wrapping the infant tightly to prevent the movement of limbs. The idea is that the baby sleeps more soundly, something that parents then as now, always appreciate.
* James Langton
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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