Nanotube Applications Grow And Grow

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Nanotube Applications Grow And Grow

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 2, 2003 @04:59AM from the or-shrink-and-shrink dept.

HobbySpacer writes "Carbon nanotubes are starting to transition from interesting laboratory curiosities into interesting technological applications. These apps include non-volatile RAM, flat screen displays, high strength fabrics, and smart skin for structures in aerospace and elsewhere. Perhaps if The Graduate was being made today, the one word for Benjamin Braddock's future would not be "plastics" but "nanotubes"."

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More relevant material by mao+che+minh · 2003-07-02 05:03 · Score: 5, Informative

NASA also has a page for it's nanotube developments at Johnson Space Center. The NSF is part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and has it's own page as well.
And as far as commercial entities go, don't forget IBM's find back in September of 2002, which was making nanotubes with carbon instead of metal.
1. Re:More relevant material by jscribner · 2003-07-02 05:56 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  IBM's had a whole bunch of releases on Carbon Nanotubes, most recently there was the one about a solid-state light emitter, and in may 2002 we made CNT transistors that out performed the Si ones.
  
  The IBM releases/etc on Carbon Nanotubes can all be found here.
  
  --
  JS - IBM Metaverse devteam
  The opinions expressed here are mine & not necessarily representative of IBM
Bullet-proof nano-fabric? by Darken_Everseek · 2003-07-02 05:14 · Score: 5, Informative

That's all fine and dandy, but a bullet proof piece of clothing 'as light as a t-shirt' wouldn't so squat. Kevlar is a pretty light material too, the reason bullet proof vests are so heavy is because of the large impact absorbing plates. Without some impact absorbance, the bullet would just end up dragging a whole bunch of cloth into the gaping hole in your chest. You have to have something to absorb the kinetic energy; and a t-shirt just doesn't cut it.
1. Re:Bullet-proof nano-fabric? by Alric · 2003-07-02 05:43 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Maybe you shouldn't include Tolkien in your education series. All he said is that the cave troll skewered Frodo with the spear. Peter Jackson is the genius who decided to put Frodo against a wall so there would be no where for all of that kinetic energy to go except right into Frodo's tiny, weak little heart.
  
  Jackson needs the education; leave the one true god, errr Tolkien, out of this.
2. Re:Bullet-proof nano-fabric? by Gulik · 2003-07-02 06:27 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  All he said is that the cave troll skewered Frodo with the spear.
  
  Actually, upon re-reading the series, I was relieved to find that it was the captain of the Orc guard (not the troll) who got Frodo, and Frodo's side hurt for days afterwards. I don't believe there was any mention of him getting pinned against the wall, either. So, sadly, I think Jackson has to take the total weight of this particular nitpick.
3. Re:Bullet-proof nano-fabric? by oggelbe2001 · 2003-07-02 06:53 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The mogols used to wear silk shirts when riding into battle. The silk would not tear when the warrior was stuck by an arrow - just pushed into the wound by the force of the arrow. This made it easier to pull the arrowhead back out of the wound. Ouck. I can't envision this working as well with 38cal rounds in your chest cavity.
Spear-proof mithril armor by burgburgburg · 2003-07-02 05:52 · Score: 2, Informative

While the strength inherent in the mithril is a component in resisting spear thrusts, it is in fact the Elfish magic that the armor has been imbued with that absorbs and dissipates the force of the blow. This is also the major factor in the delicious nature of Keebler cookies, which are also Elfish.
Re:Clarke and Niven have some more apps... by CvD · 2003-07-02 06:22 · Score: 4, Informative

For those of you (like myself) wondering wtf those are:

Variable sword

shadow square wire

--
The Official Steve Ballmer Webpage
Non Newtonian armour by nounderscores · 2003-07-02 09:29 · Score: 2, Informative

That was in the Sourcebook Fields of Fire for the Shadowrun RPG. (and a damn fine gaming system it is too.)

The bulletproof clothing felt like gel when worn under normal conditions, but when subjected to a shockwave from a projectile or blast moving at or above the speed of sound it would harden into a bodycast of the wearer. After the shock had passed around the wearer, the armour would return to its fluid state. It was available in two models - the original bodysuit which made the wearer immobile until it had re-liquified, and the second-gen stuff which only hardened in the places hit.

The failure mode for a bad roll of the dice when defending against automatic weapons fire would the irreversible hardening of the suit into a permanent cast of the wearer.

A GM I played with allowed one of my teammates to take out a NPC wearing the armour with subsonic silenced rounds. Likewise, knives and arrows passed through it with no side effects other than releasing a vile poisonous goo from the punctured armour straight into the entry wound.

After that the remaining NPC Mercs wore kevlar and ceramic plates over their goo suits.