Futuristic 'Smart' Yarns from Carbon Nanotubes

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."

Comments

Finally...

[tokenhillbilly]

Now we can get to work on spinning the belt for the space elevator.

Arthur C. Clarke's Fountain of Paradise

[MasterC]

Am I the only one who thought of Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke when reading this?

For those that don't know, Foutains of Paradise is where ACC first coined the idea of building an elevator into space which he later used in 3001: A Final Odyssey (The 3rd sequal to 2001: A Space Odyssey). To build the elevator a super-strength carbon string was bundled into three bundles and then attached to a giant mass in space to keep the tethers taught. At least if memory serves me correctly that's how it was done. If you're an ACC fan and haven't read Fountains of Paradise, I recommend it.

Ballistic protection

[roman_mir]

In Ontario, Canada the guvmnt wants to declare bullet proof vests against the law, just like weapons. Will clothes that provide ballistic protection as well as a range of other great features be against the law? I want my bullet-proof underwear, god-damnit!

The killer app

[Control Group]

This is clearly cool. Temperature-sensitive clothing that adjusts to keep me comfortable over a range of conditions would be spectacular. Bullet resistance is a cool bonus. The potential exoskeletal applications are downright neat. And, personally, I would love to see this in wearable computing applications.

But all that being said, what I want to see most is clothing that you can change the appearance of (color, pattern, even cut, if possible) at will. Not because I particularly want it, mind you, but because I'm quite certain that that's the feature that will drive adoption of this in the consumer space, which is what will cause all the actually cool applications to be available.

Viva fashion, and whatnot.

Health concernes..

[lordsilence]

This may be a really stupid question. Related to a recent study concerning the replacements for asbestos. Back in the 80:ies when it was discovered that asbestos would cause lung-cancer or worse after repeated exposion to it, they replaced asbestos rather swiftly with materials like cheramic fibres. Now, recently they discovered that replacements like heat-resistant cheramics could also cause lung-cancer this. Perhaps just as dangerous as asbestos. The reason found, was because of the micro-fragments (dust) which would gather in the lungs and it's air-sacks (alveoli) and make them to swell abnormally and then risk causing cancer.
Even building insolation materials have also been questioned.
Now to my concern regarding carbon fibre.. has there been any studies on carbon tubes's affects on the human body? Carbon-fibre is an artificial material such as many insolations questioned. That is why I ask.
Ten years, twenty years or more from now, will we notice the dangerious side-affects of materials we push out on the market?