Figure 1

Levitating moments in Nijmegen. Left—A ball of water (about 5 cm in diameter) freely floats inside a vertical bore of an electromagnet. Right—The frog that learned to fly. This image continues to serve as a symbol showing that magnetism of “nonmagnetic things,” including humans, is not so negligible. This experiment earned Michael Berry and me the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize. We were asked first whether we dared to accept this prize, and I take pride in our sense of humor and self-deprecation that we did.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

In hindsight, thin crystals of graphite are easy to obtain. (a) Remnants of HOPG left attached to Scotch tape. (b) Some of the crystals are optically transparent if viewed in an optical microscope or just with a magnifying glass. (c) If placed on an oxidized Si wafer, transparent crystals give rise to various shades of blue. (d) One of our very first devices made by using “a shoestring and sealing wax”: in this case, tweezers, a toothpick, and silver paint.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

Prehistory of graphene. (a) Graphene as probably seen by Brodie 150 years ago. Graphite oxide at the bottom of the container dissolves in water making the yellow suspension of floating graphene flakes. (b) TEM image of ultrathin graphitic flakes from the early 1960s [copied with permission from 9]. (c) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of thin graphite platelets produced by cleavage (similar to images reported by 54. (d) STM of graphene grown on Pt [copied with permission from 51]. The image is $100\times 100{\mathrm{nm}}^2$ in size. The hexagonal superstructure has a period of $\sim 22\AA$ and appears due to the interaction of graphene with the metal substrate.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 4

Those who made our first graphene paper possible but did not get the Prize.Reuse & Permissions