STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Two professors from the University of Manchester in Britain received the Nobel Prize in Physics Tuesday for their work in the two-dimensional material graphene.
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, through their groundbreaking experiments, demonstrated graphene, carbon one atom thick, has exceptional properties originating from quantum physics, the Roy Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a release.
Graphene is a "completely new" material, not only the thinnest ever, but also the strongest, the academy said. Graphene performs as well as copper as a conductor of electricity and outperforms other known materials as a conductor of heat, the scientists said.
Geim and Novoselov extracted graphene from a piece of graphite such as is found in pencils. Using adhesive tape they obtained a flake of carbon one atom thick at a time when many scientists thought it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable, the academy said.
"Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again," the release said.
Novoselov, 36, first worked with Geim, 51, as a doctoral student in the Netherlands and eventually came to Britain. Both originally studied and began their careers in Russia.
UPI
