00:15The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andrew Gain and Konstantin Novoselov
00:22for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.
00:28Andrew Gain was born in Sochi, Russia to a family with German heritage.
00:33He spent the first seven years of his life living with his maternal grandparents.
00:38It was not until later that he discovered that both his paternal grandfather and his father,
00:44who were physicists, had spent several years imprisoned in labor camps.
00:49Since receiving his PhD in physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka,
00:57Andrew Gain has worked at several European universities, including in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
01:06Gain has held a position at the University of Manchester in the UK since 2001.
01:12A thin flake of ordinary carbon just one atom thick lies behind Nobel Prize in Physics.
01:21Andrew Gain and Konstantin Novoselov have shown that carbon, in such a flat form,
01:27has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.
01:34Graphene is a form of carbon. As a material it is completely new. Not only the thinnest ever, but also the strongest.
01:44As a conductor of electricity it performs as well as copper. As a conductor of heat it outperforms all other known materials.
01:54It is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it.
02:05Carbon, the basis of all known life on Earth, has surprised us once again.
02:11Gain and Novoselov extracted the graphene from a piece of graphite, such as is found in ordinary pencils.
02:21Using regular adhesive tape, they managed to obtain a flake of carbon with a thickness of just one atom.
02:29This at a time when many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable.
02:39However, with graphene physicists can now study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
02:47Graphene makes experiments possible that give new twists to the phenomena in quantum physics.
02:54Also, a vast variety of practical applications now appear possible, including the creation of new materials and the manufacture of innovative electronics.
03:07Graphene transistors are predicted to be substantially faster than today's silicon transistors and result in more efficient computers.
03:19Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene is suitable for producing transparent touch screens, light panels and maybe even solar cells.
03:32When mixed into plastics, graphene can turn them into conductors of electricity, while making them more heat-resistant and mechanically robust.
03:45This resilience can be utilized in new, super-strong materials, which are also thin, elastic and lightweight.
03:57In the future, satellites, airplanes and cars could be manufactured out of the new composite materials.
04:06Lawreats have been working together for a long time now.
04:10Konstantin Novoselov, 36, first worked with Andrew Gein, 51, as a PhD student in the Netherlands.
04:18He subsequently followed Gein to the United Kingdom.
04:23Both of them originally studied and began their careers as physicists in Russia.
04:29Now they are both professors at the University of Manchester.
04:34Playfulness is one of their hallmarks.
04:37One always learns something in the process.
04:40And, who knows, you may even hit the jackpot.
04:43Like now, when they, with graphene, write themselves into the annals of science.
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