Zhu-Jun Wang

A platinum plate sits in a chamber with rarefied gas, and waves run across it. Not water waves, but chemical ones: patches where the surface is covered with oxygen give way to patches where carbon monoxide sits. Previously, these waves were seen as dark and light areas in images, but it was impossible to tell exactly which patch corresponded to what.

Graphene is a carbon film exactly one atom thick. Two such sheets placed on top of each other with a slight twist behave very differently from a single sheet. At an angle of about 1.1 degrees, electrons slow down so much that the material can become a superconductor or an insulator — depending on the conditions.

The electron beam of a microscope usually flies through emptiness, like a courier on an empty highway. Any air molecule is a bump that makes it bounce and lose direction. So before, to examine a sample, you had to freeze it, dry it, or coat it with metal—and still you could only look in a vacuum.