Futuristic 'Smart' Yarns from Carbon Nanotubes 216
neutron_p writes "Scientists at The UTD NanoTech Institute achieved a major technological breakthrough by spinning multi-walled carbon nanotube yarns that are strong, tough and extremely flexible, and are both electrically and thermally conducting. Among other things, the futuristic yarns could result in 'smart' clothing that stores electricity, provides ballistic protection and adjusts temperature and porosity to provide greater comfort. The breakthrough, made possible by, in effect, downsizing ancient technology used for wool and cotton spinning to the nanoscale, resulted from an unusual collaboration involving nanotechnologists and experts in wool spinning."
Wonderful world of Nanotubes (Score:5, Informative)
No nanotube sweaters for Christmas this year (Score:5, Informative)
The article (Score:5, Informative)
It's worth noting that UTD has only been hard at work in CNT research for a few years. I was there in 2002 when the NanoTech institute was still being built. They had a bunch of Dells sitting outside the building with no one watching...but I guess they didn't worry. I mean, who steals a Dell?
Other good links, mostly culled from the above Science article:
Baughman's summary of nanotube work [sciencemag.org]
Smalley (the Nobel prize winner) and his CNT work: [rice.edu]: He invented the HiPCO process for large-scale development of CNT's...from what I gather, fiber-spinning like the UTD method is a direct competitor.
A really good (and 46 page!) discussion of nanotube work [rice.edu]
Strong Bad [homestarrunner.com], in case you get tired of science.
Re:Not smart enough. (Score:3, Informative)
It's worse than that: with the new smaart fabric, the paisley's swim around.
Re:Health concerns.. (Score:2, Informative)
YES, Toxic (Score:5, Informative)
How many times are we going to see this posted... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Health concernes.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Arthur C. Clarke's Fountain of Paradise (Score:3, Informative)
Tsiolkovsky first proposed it in 1895.
See http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/TETHER/space
Re:First application likely to be... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:First application likely to be... (Score:2, Informative)