The 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselo, both at the University of Manchester, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced 5 October,” for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material  graphene“, a new material made from carbon atoms arranged in hexagons, and only one atom thick, thus making it essentially two-dimensional.

Geim is Dutch, and was born in Sochi, Russia  in 1958. His student Novoselo, 38, started work with Geim as a PhD student, then followed him to the University of Manchester, where both are professors.

Graphene conducts electricity as well as copper, and is better at conducting heat than all other known materials. So thin, it is almost transparent, yet very dense. There are hopes that it will revolutionize computing by replacing silicon.

Many of its properties are yet to be discovered, and they are also promising in combination with other materials.

The global carbon budget, a method for calculating carbon added to the atmosphere, the “underpinning of human induced climate change,” indicates that CO2 emmissions have been growing four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade. The budget, a project involving several universities and research organizations around the world, was published late Thursday night by Global Carbon Project (2008) Carbon budget and trends 2007.