Graphene is news. Last year, the modern discoverers of graphene, research professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester, won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Just last month, at a time when all UK government spending budgets are under threat or already cut, science minister David Willetts announced that an extra ￡50 million on top of the general science budget would be made available for a graphene research hub, assuming a "business case" could be put forward by the funding bodies. What is all the money that is sloshing around the system, in the UK and abroad, being spent on? A lot of it, says Leonid Ponomarenko, one of the leading researchers in the department of physics and astronomy at Manchester, goes on fairly standard electronics industry-style research facilities: cleanrooms, high-resolution microscopes and precision tools. It's standard because, for all graphene's wide potential uses, the substance itself is not especially "difficult": it's extremely strong, chemically inert and an excellent electronic conductor. The "down-sides" are a susceptibility to humidity and the need for insulation for applications such as microchips where the conductivity needs to be controlled.
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