Land of Hope and Technology February 2016 | Page 4

ISSUE 1

Let’s begin with that
Friday night
On that auspicious occasion two scientists
were doing what they had done many time
before. Friday night was experiment night.
They and their students used to regularly
experiment, often on ideas not necessarily
connected to their work. On this particular
occasion, the tool of their experiment was
scotch tape, the subject was graphite,
a commonly available substance which
everyone who has used a pencil is familiar
with. On this occasion they tried applying the
tape to the graphite, stripping off a layer at a
time. The end result was something that has
been hailed as a wonder material: graphene.
This is the material that is just one atom
thick, 200 times stronger than steel and has
been described as providing the potential
solution to efficient water desalination,
faster and more powerful computers, more
efficient energy storage, electric sports cars,
lightweight planes, semi-transparent mobile
phones and bullet proof clothes lighter than
silk underwear.

Andre Geim, one of the two scientists
behind the isolation of graphene, described
that process which led to the breakthrough
as ‘joking around on a Friday night’. So
remarkable was this discovery that in 2010,
just six years after the first paper describing
the isolation of graphene was published,
Geim and his colleague Konstantin
Novoselov won the Nobel Prize for Physics.
So that’s six years from breakthrough to
Nobel Prize, such a short time frame is
simply unprecedented.
The above story illustrates some of
Britain’s core strengths in two key ways.
Firstly, excellence of its universities. Two
British universities in particular are famous
worldwide, but it is not just Oxbridge that is
held in high esteem. The UK possesses an

abundance of universities celebrated across
the world. The research that is forthcoming
from these institutions is providing the
foundation to a new revolution in technology,
one that will touch the lives of everyone on
this planet. This is not where their importance
ends, however. These universities help
create talent, much of which stays in the UK,
they also draw in talent from abroad, which
then takes up residence on these shores.
Neither Geim nor Novoselov were British by
birth. In fact they were born in Russia. Today
Geim has both Dutch and British nationality,
Novoselov is Dutch. Both, however live in the
UK, working at Manchester University. Partly
because of the strength of its education
institutions, but not only for that reason,
the UK is like a magnet to talent across the
world. The popularity of this country amongst
immigrants is one of its core strengths.
As the story of that Friday night when
graphene was isolated shows, immigrants
to the UK are helping ensure some of the
most important scientific breakthroughs in
the world occur in the UK. But, in helping
propel the UK into the vanguard of the next
technological revolution, immigration offers
more than just a pillar of intellectualism to its
universities. It also provides entrepreneurial
fire, business nous, a much needed dollop of
risk taking to a country that for too long was
paralysed by fear of trying something new,
and a zeal to create wealth.

The story of graphene also illustrates how
the UK may yet manage to mess up, to take
the opportunity that awaits us all, and