Evidence: Well-supported historical consensus
Naming (mid-1980s, often 1986)
Boehm, Setton, Stumpp and colleagues help fix graphene as the systematic name for a single graphite sheet (graphite + -ene). See 1962 and theories.
Epitaxy and surface science (1970s onward)
Monolayer carbon is grown or observed on metal surfaces and produced by heating silicon carbide (Si sublimation). These layers are real and important. They are usually stuck to a substrate. That is a different object from a flake sitting on SiO₂ that you can gate like a transistor (2004).
Theory weather
Textbook talk about whether strictly 2D crystals can exist (Mermin–Wagner context) shapes expectations. Pop histories oversell this as “physicists thought graphene was impossible.” The actual constraint is subtler. Log the ideal, not the myth: theories.
Early-2000s industry
Nano graphene platelet / single-layer process filings show companies studying the material before the Science paper. That belongs on companies, not as proof that 2004 was unnecessary.