A new record for the world's thinnest sheet of glass has been set, and it comes in at just two atoms thick. The ultra-thin glass, now recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, was an accidental discovery by scientists at Cornell University and Germany’s University of Ulm.
As they were working to produce pure graphene, the researchers noticed a formation of "muck," but closer analysis revealed a glass layer composed of silicon and oxygen. In other words, this major discovery was something of a stroke of luck. Scientists suspect that an air leak prompted a reaction between copper foils being used for the graphene work and a quartz furnace.
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