Russian scientists win Physics Nobel for carbon breakthrough
05 Oct 2010
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 to Russia-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."
Andre Geim (52), born in Sochi, Russia in 1958 and Konstantin Novoselov (36), born in Nizhny Tagil, Russia in 1974, are currently professors at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
Graphene is a form of carbon, a completely new material, which is not only the thinnest ever but also the strongest. A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, graphene forms the perfect atomic lattice, the Nobel Prize Committee said in its release.
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov have shown that carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.
Graphene is as good a conductor of electricity as copper. As a conductor of heat it outperforms all other known materials. It is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it.
"Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again," the Nobel Prize Committee remarked.
.webp)
