National graphene institute

If you've ever drawn with a pencil, you've probably made graphene without even noticing. Now, the world's thinnest material is set to revolutionise almost every part of daily life. Fascination with this material stems from its remarkable physical properties and the potential applications they offer. Although scientists knew one atom thick, two-dimensional crystal graphene existed, no-one had worked out how to extract it from graphite. That was until it was isolated in 2004 by two researchers at The University of Manchester: Prof Andre Geim and Prof Kostya Novoselov. This is the story of how that stunning scientific feat came about and why Andre and Kostya won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work.