Physicists created ‘wonder material’ of 21st century

TWO scientists working at Manchester University won the 2010 Nobel Physics Prize for their pioneering work on a form of carbon touted as the wonder material of the 21st century.

Russia-born Andre Geim, of the Netherlands, and Russian-British national Konstantin Novoselov were awarded for research on graphene, hailed by the Swedish Academy of Sciences as “the perfect atomic lattice” for its glittering potential in computers, home gadgets and transport.

The Academy lauded Geim, 51, and Novoselov, 36, for having “shown that carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics”.