But in the bowels of a particular metropolitan area--where conduits are already becoming choked with thick copper wire--the human-hair-sized glass has almost immediate prospects.

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"There is no way to describe seeing your son behind a window so thick that it has barbed wire in it and you can't give him a hug, " Morgan, a stay-at-home mom with a strong Southern accent, said in a phone interview.

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Think of it as a sheet of chicken-wire that is just a single atom thick, but also lightweight, strong, airtight, stretchable, transparent and an excellent conductor of both electricity and light.

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Mr Williams, who was 5ft 9in (1.7m), with short brown hair and a brown beard, had a barbed wire tattoo across his collar bone and often wore glasses with very thick lenses, officers said.

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Mr Williams, who was 5ft 9ins (1.7m), with short brown hair and a brown beard, had a barbed wire tattoo across his collar bone and often wore glasses with very thick lenses, officers said.

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