A new generation of cheap, high-speed wireless computers could be a step closer after IBM produced a graphene microchip it claims can equal silicon.

The company says integrated circuits based on graphene, the single atomic layer form of carbon, could allow mobile and wearable computing devices to transmit data much faster and in a more cost-effective and power-efficient way than conventional silicon semiconductor technology.

Ian Burkhart, a 23-year-old quadriplegic from Dublin, Ohio, is the first patient to use Neurobridge, an electronic neural bypass for spinal cord injuries that reconnects the brain directly to muscles, allowing voluntary and functional control of a paralyzed limb. Burkhart is the first of a potential five participants in a clinical study.

"It's much like a heart bypass, but instead of bypassing blood, we're actually bypassing electrical signals," said Chad Bouton, research leader at Battelle. "We're taking those signals from the brain, going around the injury, and actually going directly to the muscles."