called graphene started with what looks like pencil lead and a strip of scotch tape the university of manchester in england has been the site of their research and it may have started that simply but it's taken on far more complex and exciting auspices of a seal of has spent the better part of the last decade experimenting with ways to obtain graphene first theorized by a canadian in the forty's and named by a german in the sixty's single layer graphene saw daylight thanks to both and a team of russian and international scientists in two thousand and four after six years in which that team is made more breakthroughs in the study of the substance detained a mistake in their work to science is most sacred stage. this is. done . with amazing. just. to. this. yeah i think. back in the manchester lab it was smiles in champagne for gaiman company. a nobel prize is icing on the cake of years of hard work but they know they're not alone in the game they had competition from other graphene researchers from day one so how is it they got their sample first in traditional graphite carbon structures atoms on

particular -- early august 1916, the chappie had lunch with was the professor of biology at the university of manchester who was a white russian. he had lunch. was serious. talking about all sorts of things. toward the end he became very excited and said, incidentally, i have invented a new technique for producing a very large quantities of acetone. scott had no interest and had never heard the word before. no interest in it. he was courteous pretty fired away this-affirmation. and then the next tuesday he happens to be in london where he was having lunch with the -- with david lloyd george was the minister of munitions in the british war cabinet. he went on and on about the desperate state of things and how we could not fire our guns because we did not have any cordite because we have run short of acetone. this was the second time in the week he had heard this word. the light went on. he said i met this funny little chap last week declined to be able to produce acetone and large quantities. he came alive. is it true? did he appear to be a crackpot? no. he seemed very nice. well, we better have him down