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World's Largest Nanotube Model

Posted by Zonk on from the better-than-a-ball-of-twine-i-guess dept.

darthpenguin writes "A group at Rice University has completed building the world's largest Nanotube model. Rice University is a leader in this revolutionary field involving nanotubes and buckyballs, which have the potential to revolutionize certain areas of science. The completed model, a full 360 meters in length, has been accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records."

8 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Definition of Irony: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Wow...what's the category? World's Biggest Waste of Time ?
    I think that pretty well describes everything in the Guinness Book of World Records.
  2. Also on display... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... World's tallest Midget.

  3. Suddenly I don't feel so inadequate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    nanotubes and buckyballs

    I bet their wives tease them all the time.

  4. Picture Of The Inanimate Carbon Rod by Anti_Climax · · Score: 5, Funny
    Apparently they've posted an ASCII photo of the model to save bandwidth. I think I managed to get it before they site went down. It looks like this
    Fatal error: out of dynamic memory in yy_create_buffer() in Unknown on line 0
    I can't really tell how true to life it is though.
    --
    Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
  5. Re:Definition of Irony: by Council · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like posting on /.?

    No, wait, before you mod me down -- this is a fallacy I see a lot that bothers me and will probably come out a lot in these comments. When someone does something big and pointless and it's closely related to something good for the world, people say "what a waste of time!" but when they do something big and pointless and geeky that doesn't remind you about the world's problems, people say "cool!" Millions of people are wasting time constantly, including people with the potential to change the world tremendously.

    Put another way, researchers don't have to devote every minute of their lives to doing research. Especially not when we're wasting our lives posting about them on /.

    Though the GWR is silly.

    --
    xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
  6. This beats the previous model... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...by 359.99999999 meters.

  7. They're entitled to a PR stunt... by pmadden · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Give them a break... the model is a PR stunt, but the whole nanotube/buckyball thing started at Rice. The feds have started pouring money into nanotech research; if Rice wants to get their fair share of the loot, they need to make sure no one forgets where the nanotube came from. Seems like a lot of /.ers don't know, which is kind of scary.

    Most schools use their sports programs to get positive PR. Rice is doing their PR off of some very solid and useful research that happened on campus. Got a problem with that?

  8. ok... by BoomTechnology · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ok. In all honesty -- it really wasn't that big of a
    waste of time. We (the students -- undergrad
    students who don't have the knowledge of doing
    this sort of research) were asked by the coordinators to sign up to build the tube.
    Mind you, we did this on a Friday when most of us don't
    work hard anyways (especially those silly Academs).
    OK. Admittedly, I did not partake in these festivities as I was busy with other more important things,
    but for the people who had the time to do it, I'm sure
    it was a bonding experience and I'm sure they had a blast. Plus they got free t-shirts...yum.

    --
    Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb...