carbon nanotubes

Carbon Nanotubes Can Now Fireproof Your Furniture

If you’ve ever lamented the fact that putting your sofa right next to a warm crackling fireplace was dangerous, carbon nanotubes might one day come to the rescue—again. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology—or NIST—have created a carbon nanotube-based coating that makes the foam used in furniture considerably less flammable. https://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-tiniest-saw-is-made-from-diamond-coated-car-1078896278 The…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Jan 17

The First Carbon Nanotube Computer: The Hyper-Efficient Future Is Here

Coming just a year after the creation of the first carbon nanotube computer chip, scientists have just built the very first actual computer with a central processor centered entirely around carbon nanotubes. Which means the future of electronics just got tinier, more efficient, and a whole lot faster. https://gizmodo.com/scientists-are-making-computer-chips-of-the-future-out-5955734 Built by a group of engineers…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg Sep 25

Breakthrough: The World’s First Carbon Nanotube Computer

It’s only got 178 transistors, but it’s an important proof-of-concept that’s poised to keep Moore’s Law right on track. The breakthrough, in which a basic computer was powered by microscopic chains of carbon atoms, means we may have finally found a viable alternative to silicon chips. Back in 1965, Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore famously…

io9 George Dvorsky Sep 25

Scientists Found a New Way to Turn Plastic Bags into a Supermaterial

Have you ever had a roommate who saves plastic grocery bags just in case they ever have the need to reuse the dang things? Like, hundreds of plastic grocery bags? Well, thanks to some Australian engineers, those extra bags can not only have a purpose, they can become technology of the future. A team from…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Sep 25

The World’s Tiniest Saw Is Made From Diamond-Coated Carbon Nanotubes

You know all that sawdust you’re left with when hacking through a piece of lumber? It’s a minor inconvenience for carpenters, but a huge problem for electronics manufacturers cutting expensive materials like silicon wafers on the microscopic scale. So researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have found a way to make incredibly precise ultra-thin saws from…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Aug 9

Microscopic carbon probe can measure the activity of a single neuron

Scientists have used carbon nanotubes to engineer an astonishingly small electrode, pictured here, that is thin and long enough to record electrical activity within individual neurons. The single cell resolution, in and of itself, is not unprecedented (we’ve been measuring single-neuron activity with glass pipettes for years, using a Nobel Prize winning technique called the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jun 24

Muscles Made From Wax-Filled Yarn Are Way Stronger Than Yours

The expansion and contraction of muscles keeps us alive every second of every day. Even though it’s such a basic part of our existance, creating artificial muscles has proven to be a bit more complicated. That is, until now. Scientists have recently found what could be a good solution: yarn full of wax. Developed by…

Tech News Eric Limer Nov 16

Scientists Are Making Computer Chips of the Future Out of Carbon Nanotubes

Scientists have developed a way to manufacture a new breed of computer chips that use carbon nanotubes in the place of silicon. Nanotubes have plenty of superior electronic properties over silicon, but until now it’s been impossible to manufacture a chip with a high enough density of nanotubes to make an effective processing unit. Now,…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe Oct 29

Watch a nanotube being eaten, and then barfed back up, by a flake of iron

There are a lot of grown-up ways I might have chosen to write that headline, but when you watch this video you’ll see why I resorted to talking like my five-year-old neighbor. Though what you’re watching are simple chemical reactions under a transmission electron microscope (TEM), it’s tempting to describe them in animalistic terms. The…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 16

Carbon Nanotube Coated Fibers Could One Day Lead To Self-Heating Clothing

Working with Hokkaido University, Kuraray Living has created a soft washable fabric woven with carbon nanotube coated fibers that produces heat when electricity is applied. So when it’s perfected, your electric blanket could get a lot less bulky. The material has been in development since 2007, but recent advancements in carbon nanotube technology have given…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Feb 25

Why Japan Probably Won’t Have a Space Elevator by 2050

Japanese construction company Obayashi wants to build an elevator to space — and they want to use carbon nanotubes to get there. The Tokyo-based company plans to use 60,000-miles of the cylindrical carbon structures, anchored to Earth’s surface, to shuttle an elevator to and from a distance about a tenth of the Moon’s distance from…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 24

Carbon nanotubes could be hiding bits of the universe

Carbon nanotubes can create a ‘perfect black’ that visually wipes out a dimension, making 3D objects look 2D. When draped over a substance, a thin coat of them renders the object invisible by absorbing all the light coming in. Scientists think that similar substances might be responsible for much of the ‘missing matter’ in the…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Nov 25

Scientists have used carbon nanotubes to engineer the most powerful artificial muscles ever

Will the wonders of carbon nanotubes never cease? Engineers have now used everyone’s favorite cylindrical übermolecules to create artificial muscles that can contract and twist, in a manner not unlike like the muscles found in elephant trunks and squid tentacles. The upshot? Researchers say these tiny little motors could soon be used to propel microscopic…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Oct 14

Underwater Cloaking Device Is Insane Looking

Cloaking device prototypes are usually either pipe dreams or poorly executed, but this experiment out of UT Dallas is incredible. Utilizing the same principle behind a mirage, Danger Room reports, the carbon nanotube plate completely vanishes at a button-press. By heating up the water immediately around the nano plate, rays of light are bent away…

Tech News Sam Biddle Oct 4

How an Underwater “Invisibility Cloak” Makes Solid Objects Disappear

Carbon nanotubes are at last doing something cool. Scientists have figured out how to use the “mirage effect” to completely make an object disappear. The effect uses the tubes and it only works underwater. Finally! An invisibility cloak! That Aquaman can use. Scientists at the University of Dallas have figured out how to make objects…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 4

Carbon nanotubes will lift us to space

The idea of a ‘space elevator’ has been around since the late 1800s. Until now, there wasn’t a material strong enough to build it. Then carbon nanotubes stepped in. It’s official: everyone in the future will be made entirely out of carbon nanotubes. They may be able to cure cancer, they may be able to…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 27

The Best of the Year in Space

It’s been a big year for the space sciences. The first privately-held spacecraft orbited our world, the blackest material in history was created, researchers expanded the list of possible sources of life threefold; and that was just in December. 1. Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH – February 2nd Hubble has discovered a…

Space & Spaceflight Gizmodo Staff Dec 27

What Happens When Water is Dropped Onto Water-Repelling Carbon Nanotubes?

Even though not all of you will understand what “superhydrophobic carbon nanotubes” actually are, everyone will appreciate this video of water droplets shot at varying frame-rate speeds of up to 3,500fps. Except for Martians, perhaps. Several water droplets were filmed in super slo-mo, as they dropped onto a “superhydrophobic” (massively water-repelling) arrangement of carbon nanotube…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Oct 14

Storing Your Data For a Billion Years

As concerned as we are about memory, we haven’t done much to preserve it. Most of our hard drives don’t last past 30 years. But soon, using diamond-like carbon nanotubes, even your Gizmodo comments could last practically forever. The solution, discovered by researchers at the University of California, takes an entirely new approach to data…

Tech News Brian Barrett Mar 16

Underwear Made From Bananas Hits Australian Shops

We often speak of material being used to conduct electricity, but what if underwear makers AussieBum—who’ve created underpants made from banana fiber—used carbon nanotubes as well? Think of the possibilities banana-derived electricity-conducting pants could bring you. [KoreaHerald] https://gizmodo.com/nanowires-could-turn-your-t-shirts-into-nano-power-stat-356380

Tech News Kat Hannaford Mar 10

Carbon Nanotubes Can Now Fireproof Your Furniture

The First Carbon Nanotube Computer: The Hyper-Efficient Future Is Here

Breakthrough: The World’s First Carbon Nanotube Computer

Scientists Found a New Way to Turn Plastic Bags into a Supermaterial

The World’s Tiniest Saw Is Made From Diamond-Coated Carbon Nanotubes

Microscopic carbon probe can measure the activity of a single neuron

Muscles Made From Wax-Filled Yarn Are Way Stronger Than Yours

Scientists Are Making Computer Chips of the Future Out of Carbon Nanotubes

Watch a nanotube being eaten, and then barfed back up, by a flake of iron

Carbon Nanotube Coated Fibers Could One Day Lead To Self-Heating Clothing

Why Japan Probably Won’t Have a Space Elevator by 2050

Carbon nanotubes could be hiding bits of the universe

Scientists have used carbon nanotubes to engineer the most powerful artificial muscles ever

Underwater Cloaking Device Is Insane Looking

How an Underwater “Invisibility Cloak” Makes Solid Objects Disappear

Carbon nanotubes will lift us to space

The Best of the Year in Space

What Happens When Water is Dropped Onto Water-Repelling Carbon Nanotubes?

Storing Your Data For a Billion Years

Underwear Made From Bananas Hits Australian Shops

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