Graphite, the shiny grey stuff in your pencil, has unexpected powers.

When you write with it, you’re scraping off a very thin layer. For decades, scientists tried to slice a layer just one atom thick—which they called graphene.

But it was only 13 years ago, at the University of Manchester, that they succeeded. Graphene turned out to be far more miraculous than they could have ever imagined.

It’s the thinnest compound known to man, thousands of times thinner than the human hair. It’s also the lightest, a thousand times less dense than paper.

Graphene is harder than diamonds, and 200 times stronger than the strongest steel. Its ability to conduct heat is 1000 times greater than copper. It’s also the best-known conductor of electricity at room temperature.

It’s impermeable to gases—not even helium can pass through it—while being transparent, highly flexible, even stretchable. And get this: if it does get torn, it can repair itself.

Not surprisingly, this incredible material will transform our lives in the future. It will lead to lighter, faster, more efficient and much smaller electronics. Lighter, stronger aircraft. New industrial products, like impermeable paint. Consumer products, like better tennis rackets. And because graphene is carbon-based, just as we are, the biotech possibilities are too many to mention.