How did sticky tape lead to a Nobel Prize in physics?
Well, it wasn't just the sticky tape itself, but what we were trying to do with it! We were playing with graphite, a very common material, and wanted to isolate individual atomic layers. Mechanical exfoliation, using something as simple and accessible as adhesive tape, turned out to be an incredibly effective way to peel off atomically thin flakes. It’s a testament to how sometimes the most elegant solutions come from the simplest tools. The key was to keep an open mind about the methods, not to be overly constrained by traditional approaches. This allowed us to get to graphene and observe its extraordinary properties, like the unusual charge carrier behavior, which was the core of the 'electric field effect' work.
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