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The possibility to induce a magnetic response in graphene by the introduction of defects has been generating much interest, as this would expand the already impressive list of its special properties and allow novel devices where charge and spin manipulation could be combined. So far there have been many theoretical studies (for reviews, see refs , , ) predicting that point defects in graphene should carry magnetic moments μ∼μ_B and these can in principle couple (anti)ferromagnetically^,,,,,,,,,,,. However, experimental evidence for such magnetism remains both scarce and controversial^,,,. Here we show that point defects in graphene—(1) fluorine adatoms in concentrations x gradually increasing to stoichiometric fluorographene CF_x=1.0 (ref. ) and (2) irradiation defects (vacancies)—carry magnetic moments with spin 1/2. Both types of defect lead to notable paramagnetism but no magnetic ordering could be detected …