2010 Physics Nobel Prize (Graphene)

There's an excellent short overview (with many links) of why graphene matters here:<p><a href="http://blog.joerg.heber.name/2010/10/05/great-the-physics-nobel-prize-for-graphene-now-dont-overhype-it/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.joerg.heber.name/2010/10/05/great-the-physics-no...</a><p>It punctures some of the hype, while still conveying what's interesting.

I really liked this quote at the end of the press release<p><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/press.html" rel="nofollow">http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/pr...</a><p>"Playfulness is one of their hallmarks, one always learns something in the process and, who knows, you may even hit the jackpot. Like now when they, with graphene, write themselves into the annals of science."<p>Congrats to the winners and especially to Konstantin Novoselov who is one of youngest to win a Nobel at age 36.

Here is the process of making graphene with a sticky tape -it was posted here a while ago. <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=diy-graphene-how-to-make-carbon-layers-with-sticky-tape" rel="nofollow">http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=diy-graphen...</a>

Andre Geim is quite a character. He won the Ig Nobel Prize in 2000 for floating a frog (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners#2000" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners#...</a>).

Here is their most popular graphene paper (open access in Nature Materials)<p><a href="http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v6/n3/full/nmat1849.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v6/n3/full/nmat1849.html</a>

Sixty Symbols has already a video out: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ZBkpWqrzg" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ZBkpWqrzg</a>

Although I'm congratulating both of them , it's a prize for engineering achievement not a physics discovery. Shows how the physics field is stagnant.

So when will we see mass produced graphene? Also same question for carbon nano-tubes.<p>What are the obstacles waiting to be overcome?

Is this physics or chemistry?