Breaking Bad? Try Breaking Graphite

Using only their wits, a chunk of graphite and standard-issue cellophane tape, two U.K.-based scientists in 2004 discovered a material that could bring dramatic advances to fields as disparate as computing, energy and medicine -- if anybody can make enough of it to see if it really works.

Now, researchers at Penn State University think they've found a shortcut that may lead to production of the stuff in industrial amounts.