UK duo win Nobel Prize by thinnest of margins

Two British-based scientists have won the Nobel Prize for Physics for creating graphine, the world's thinnest material.

Professor Andre Geim and Dr Konstantin Novoselov, from the University of Manchester, made the breakthrough in 2004.

Graphene, which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, has been hailed as a "wonder material". It has potential applications in the development of touch-sensitive screens, solar cells, light panels, gas sensors and flexible electronics.

One of graphene's key properties is its strength - it is around 200 times stronger than structural steel. Due to its light weight and strength, it is ideally suited for use in satellites and on aircraft.

Dr Novoselov, 36, first worked with Prof Geim, 51, as a PhD student in Holland and later followed him to the UK. Both men originally studied and began their careers as physicists in Russia. Together they pioneered techniques for generating single graphene layers and demonstrated the material's unique properties with laboratory experiments.

Nancy Rothwell, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, said: "This is fantastic news.

"We are delighted that Andre and Konstantin's work on graphene has been recognised at the very highest level by the 2010 Nobel Prize committee. This is a wonderful example of a fundamental discovery based on scientific curiosity with major practical, social and economic benefits to society."

Emeritus professor Marshall Stoneham, president of the Institute of Physics, said: "Diamonds may be a girl's best friend but graphene gives an unexpected and a wholly new way to put the electron in carbon country, bringing a whole new range of applications and showing again the strength of the British science base."

Also yesterday, British IVF pioneer Professor Robert Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.