What is so special about a serve from Novak Djokovic, the tennis world number one? Clearly, he is at peak fitness, with talent to spare and years of intensive training. But he now has another weapon in his armoury: a racquet partly made of graphene.

Discovered in 2004 by two scientists at Manchester University, who were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, graphene is a material made from carbon just one atom thick. Scientists claim it is the thinnest, strongest, most flexible stuff ever discovered, and the substance best able to conduct both heat and electricity. It is also light and transparent.

'Graphene is a technology that could revolutionise the world,' said the European Union this week, as it announced a giveaway of 1 billion for research projects to investigate its uses. Men and women working in biotechnology, medicine, consumer electronics, and all types of manufacturing are waiting with excitement to see what this wonderful material could do.

Graphene could make computer processors faster and aeroplane wings stronger; mobile devices like tablets and phones could fold away in thin flexible sheets, and graphene-laced clothes might spontaneously mend themselves when torn; new medical equipmentOne recent project created a 'single-molecule microscope' which could be used to investigate the body's workings in painstaking detail. Other graphene-based equipment currently under development may soon be able to reproduce damaged tissue, administer drugs more effectively and provide artificial body parts. could boost surgery and the fight against disease.

One of the Nobel laureates who discovered graphene, Sir Andre Geim, has warned that it can take about 40 years to get a discovery from laboratory to 'real world' applications.

But the process has already begun: since the material was discovered in Manchester nine years ago, Asia and the US have overtaken EU nations in the race to register international patents for graphene manufacture and research. So far Samsung leads the field with nine patents.

The EU is pouring money into graphene research in an effort to make up the lost ground in what many predict will be a 'new industrial revolutionA period of sudden, rapid industrialisation that transforms a country from an agricultural to an industrial economy.'.

This discovery is undoubtedly sensational. But is it really right, purists might say, to pour so much research funding into a race for profit and technological supremacy? It is understandable for countries to want the jobs and wealth that a new technology brings. But by focusing on patents and products rather than fresh ideas, we risk losing sight of the bigger picture and missing out on a more significant breakthrough.

'Nonsense,' say others. Some scientists must explore where their curiosity leads them, but once a great discovery has been made, we owe it to the rest of humanity to swiftly find the most practical uses for it. Graphene could do more than produce high-performance tennis racquets: it may well mean new ways to save lives.