This illustration shows the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope approaching an undulating sheet of perfect graphene. The exotic substance is 10 times stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than any known material at room temperature. Both physicists and nanoscientists are studying graphene and exploring its potential applications. (Credit: Calvin Davidson, British Carbon Group)

VANDERBILT (US)—The hottest, thinnest, toughest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire.

Graphene is 10 times stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than any known material at room temperature. These and graphene’s other exotic properties have attracted the interest of physicists, who want to study them, and nanotechnologists, who want to exploit them to make novel electrical and mechanical devices.

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