A pair of Russian-born physicists working at the University of Manchester in England have won the Nobel prize? in physics for investigating the properties of ultra-thin carbon flakes known as graphene, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Tuesday.

They are Andre Geim, 51, and Konstantin Novoselov, 36. They will split the prize of $1.4 million.

Graphene, in which carbon atoms are arranged in a flat hexagon lattice like chicken wire, is not only the thinnest material in the world at one atom thick, but also the strongest.

A sheet of it stretched over a coffee cup could support the weight of a truck bearing down on a pencil point. Among its other properties, it conducts electricity and heat better than any other known material and is completely transparent. Physicists say that eventually it could rival silicon as a basis for computer chips, serve as a sensitive pollution monitoring material, improve flat screen televisions and enable the creation of new materials, among other things.

In a statement, the Royal Academy said, “Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again.”?

相關(guān)報道：

　　斯德哥爾摩10月5日電瑞典皇家科學(xué)院5日宣布，將2010年諾貝爾物理學(xué)獎授予英國曼徹斯特大學(xué)科學(xué)家安德烈-海姆和康斯坦丁-諾沃肖洛夫，以表彰他們在石墨烯材料方面的卓越研究。

　　海姆和諾沃肖洛夫于2004年制成石墨烯材料。這是目前世界上最薄的材料，僅有一個原子厚。自那時起，石墨烯迅速成為物理學(xué)和材料學(xué)的熱門話題。

　　目前，集成電路晶體管普遍采用硅材料制造，當(dāng)硅材料尺寸小于10納米時，用它制造出的晶體管穩(wěn)定性變差。而石墨烯可以被刻成尺寸不到1個分子大小的單電子晶體管。此外，石墨烯高度穩(wěn)定，即使被切成1納米寬的元件，導(dǎo)電性也很好。因此，石墨烯被普遍認(rèn)為會最終替代硅，從而引發(fā)電子工業(yè)革命。

　　安德烈-海姆曾在2000年與另外一名科學(xué)家合作，他們使用磁性克服了重力作用，使一只青蛙懸浮在半空中。他們推測使用類似的方法可以試著克服一個人的重力作用，讓他在半空中漂浮起來。他們也因此獲得了2000年搞笑諾貝爾物理學(xué)獎。

　　根據(jù)諾貝爾委員會的聲明，安德列-蓋姆出生于俄羅斯，在英國做研究，但卻是荷蘭公民，而康斯坦丁-諾沃舍洛夫具有俄羅斯和英國雙重國籍。