The study of Graphene, a single atomic layerof graphite first isolated in 2004 [1], has madepossible a quantum leap in the exploration ofthe physics of two-dimensional electron sys-tems (2,3]. Since the initial report of its dis-covery, many thousands of papers havebeen published (Fig. 1), attempting to explainevery aspect of the exotic electronic proper-ties of this system. This "graphene eupho-ria" culminated with the 2010 Nobel Prize inphysics being awarded jointly to Andre Geimand Konstantin Novoselov of the Universityof Manchester, UK, "for groundbreakingexperiments regarding the two-dimensionalmaterial graphene". But what are the proper-ties of graphene, and how was it made? Whyit is so exciting for so many researchers, andwhy the Nobel Prize?
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