Move heat at the speed of sound

Gravitron said:

New Scientific American article: "scientists watch as heat moves at the speed of sound"
Common graphite, it was discovered, can move heat in a linear direction at the speed of sound. Lots of potential applications for this. It may be possible to incorporate this into the heat management of flashlights. Radiate more heat more quickly and efficiently away from the heat source.

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wosser said:

There are many downsides to graphite though. It's brittle and soft and tricky to machine accurately. It tends to degenerate into an extremely fine conductive powder that can find it's way into any nook and cranny (think short-circuits). It would be quite an expensive raw material compared to aluminium or copper, even in low grade form, higher purity would likely be prohibitively pricey.

But that said it does have a proven track-record in thermally demanding applications such as being used to make crucibles for the manipulation of molten tungsten (4000 degrees Celcius or more).

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