The Nobel Prize for physics goes to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both Russian-born physicists now working at the University of Manchester in the U.K., for their discovery of graphene.

Graphene is a sheet-like substance made of carbon atoms bonded together in a repeating hexagonal pattern. It is the first essentially two-dimensional material ever made.

Being the thinnest piece of matter in the world is just one of many superlatives that can be applied to graphene. It is also the strongest material known, about 100 times stronger than steel. Since a sheet of graphene is only one atom thick, it is also transparent, and therefore may play a role in the development of future electronic displays.