My latest news story for Chemistry World discusses how UK researchers (Andre Geim and colleagues at Manchester) have created a graphene-based membrane that allows water molecules through but not helium atoms. It's as if they've found a sieve that sieves out glass marbles from sand but doesn't let the much smaller grains of sand through. It's yet another example of how weird and wonderful is water and how endlessly fascinating is graphene.

The discovery of such a membrane material might ultimately have applications in a whole range of industries including effective separation of hydrogen from liquid or gaseous mixtures for fuel production. It could also have potential application in a novel class of fuel cell or for desalination of brine or seawater.

Read my full story here together with commentary from NIST's graphene expert Alex Smolyanitsky.