Sheets of metal just two atoms thick can be produced by squashing molten droplets at great pressure between two sapphires. The researchers who developed the process say the unusual materials could have applications in industrial chemistry, optics and computers. Last year, scientists created a gold sheet that was a single atom thick, which they dubbed "goldene" after graphene, a material made of a single layer of carbon atoms. Such materials have been described as two-dimensional, as they are as thin as chemically possible. But making other 2D metals hadn't been possible until now. The new technique, developed by Luojun Du at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues, can create 2D sheets of bismuth, gallium, indium, tin and lead that are as thin as their atomic bonds allow.