Recently in class Professor Schott mentioned one of my favorite science newsbits from the past several years. Two Russian-born scientists based in the UK, Geim and Novoselov, won the Nobel in 2010 for their work with graphene, which is graphite the "lead" in an ordinary pencil, except it is just one atom high. In other words it is a crystal lattice with length and width but almost no depth. The real world applications are still being worked out but it shows huge promise in the field of computer chip manufacture. It is one of the strongest and lightest materials currently known. My second favorite part of the story is how these scientists managed to get graphite down to one atom thick. They used regular sticky tape. By sticking it on some graphite and doubling it over roughly 10 or 20 times then dissolving the tape they manufactured what may well be a primary next generation material as well as another clue to the nature of quantum mechanics. My favorite aspect of the story is it shows one or two resourceful people and some tape can still make major contributions to the world knowledge base. Take that LHC. (Just kidding, I love the CERN.)