  Carbon is one of the most intriguing elements in the Periodic Table. It forms
many allotropes, some being known from ancient times (diamond and graphite) and
some discovered ten to twenty years ago (fullerenes, nanotubes). Quite
interestingly, the two-dimensional form (graphene) has been obtained only very
recently, and immediately attracted great deal of attention. Electrons in
graphene, obeying linear dispersion relation, behave like massless relativistic
particles, which results in a number of very peculiar electronic properties
observed in this first two-dimensional material: from an anomalous quantum Hall
effect to the absence of localization. It also provides a bridge between
condensed matter physics and quantum electrodynamics and opens new perspectives
for carbon-based electronics.
