I’ve been following nanotechnology for a long time and for as long as I can remember, nanotubes have been held as the first great delivery on nanotech’s big promises. But I’ve never been particularly impressed, because everytime I hear about nanotubes I have to remind myself that it will be years before I’ll get to see the stuff.
An article on Nature brings news of a new method scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have devised for producing nanotube sheets. It apparently involves dragging a Post-it note across a bed of nanotubes sticking to an “iron-based platform”.
The reason you should be excited is that nanotube sheets conduct electricity, have amazing physical strong, and weigh next to nothing. Still not excited? This means flexible televisions and flying cars are just years away. That is, if they can commercialize it.