The Fate of the West: The Battle to Save the World’s Most Successful Political Idea

by Bill Emmott

A notable example of one of those clusters is in Manchester, and it is based on science rather than the arts or software. In 2010 a team of scientists at Manchester University won the Nobel prize in physics for their discovery of graphene, a substance derived from carbon and popularly known as the new wonder material, as it is the strongest and thinnest material ever known. This achievement has led to the creation at Manchester University of the National Graphene Institute. The discovery, moreover, was a typical story of the modern, open, post-Thatcher UK: it was made by a team led by two immigrant scientists originally from Russia, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, one of whom had come to the UK via a university in the Netherlands.