The 2010 Nobel Prize in physics has gone to the discoverers of a sheet of carbon atoms just a single atom thick that has proven to have remarkable properties. The prize was awarded to physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both of the University of Manchester in England, “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced October 5.
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The material is made of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, forming a single layer so thin that it’s nearly see-through. For such a humble material, graphene displays some remarkable properties: It conducts electrons with extremely low resistance, can conduct heat 10 times better than copper and exhibits strange quantum effects. Graphene is also flexible and stronger than steel.
“It’s an amazing little material,” says physicist Joseph Stroscio of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Gaithersburg, Md., campus.