Drawing conclusions from graphene

In a time when cutting-edge scientific research is expensive and complex, it seems absurd that a breakthrough in physics could be achieved with simple adhesive tape. But in 2004, Andre Geim, Kostya Novoselov and co-workers at the University of Manchester in the UK did just that. By delicately cleaving a sample of graphite with sticky tape, they produced something that was long considered impossible: a sheet of crystalline carbon just one atom thick, known as graphene. Many physicists believed that a 2D crystal like graphene would always roll up rather than stand free in a planar form; but Geim's group brought to an end years of unsuccessful attempts to isolate graphene, and was able to visualize the new crystal using a simple optical microscope (figure 1).