In the nanoworld, magnetism has proven to be truly surprising. Magnetic 2-D materials just a few atoms thick could provide a substrate for ever-smaller post-silicon electronics. An international research team led by Park Je-Geun at the Center for Correlated Electron Systems, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), has just published a Perspective Review paper in Nature presenting the latest achievements and future potential of 2-D magnetic van der Waals (vdW) materials, which were unknown until six years ago and have recently attracted worldwide attention.