Inventors Geim and Novoselov Hit the Big Time: Graphene Purifies Seawater

Flashback to 2010:

The prestigious 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics was announced today (October 5), with the prize going to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both from the University of Manchester for their work on the development of graphene.

Graphene is a sheet of carbon that is a single atom thick. It is the most efficient conductor of heat known and it conducts electricity as effectively as copper. It is completely transparent, but dense enough to trap helium.

So how did they do it? Gigantic particle accelerator? Interstellar observatory? Witchcraft? None of the above. They used a piece of sticky tape and a pencil to remove a flake of the carbon in the pencil that was one atom thick. Seriously.
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Fastforward to 2013:
(Reuters) – A defense contractor better known for building jet fighters and lethal missiles says it has found a way to slash the amount of energy…