automat

"Only in recent years has it been possible to detach individual layers from crystals using liquid-based processes, in which the layers are much more strongly bound than in graphite," explains Rico Friedrich, head of the "DRESDEN-concept" junior research group AutoMaT.

In 1902, Horn & Hardart opened the first automat in Philadelphia.

Though the popularity of the Horn & Hardart automat gradually dwindled as Americans ceased to live in a nickel-and-dime economy, and the last location eventually closed its doors in 1991, for a moment in time, the automat represented the first step towards a glimmering future free of pointless, time-consuming human contact, ostensibly leaving its inhabitants open for bigger and better things.

Apart from the tellingly-named ghost kitchens, fast-food companies, the successors of the original Automat, seem eager to find out.

The door slid open and an automat smiled at her.