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New Technique for Creating Nanotube Sheets

Quetzalcoatl writes "A team of researchers has come up with a way to make strong, stable sheets of multiwall nanotubes at a rate of seven meters per minute. These sheets already display a number of remarkable qualities that lend them to many different applications, including artificial muscles, transparent antennas, video displays and solar cells."

19 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe by onekanobe · · Score: 4, Informative
  2. Just remember... by skyman8081 · · Score: 5, Interesting
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    1. Re:Just remember... by aaron_ds · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm afraid they won't.

      To quote the original article: (Emphasis mine)
      stable sheets of multiwall nanotubes at a rate of seven meters per minute.

      To quote your link:
      The multiwalled nanotubes did not burn at all.

      They will not explode.

    2. Re:Just remember... by greensasquatch · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The article states that the nanotubes channel the heat to hotspots that thenreach 1800 Kelvin. Perhaps this property could be used in the next generation of solar collectors?

  3. New material for Brisith soldiers underwear? by frinkacheese · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now our soldiers can have shortages of nanotube underwear - yay! Nanotube condoms anybody?

  4. And Sarah Mclachlan sings! by bmo · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The server's on fire!
    It's more than I can handle"

    Jeez...there's what.. (looks at file size) a 6.7MB video of this?

    And it's a dupe!

    Bravo! I genuflect in the direction of Slashdot, honoring its unlimited power to bring fear and loathing into the hearts of system administrators everywhere!

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    1. Re:And Sarah Mclachlan sings! by S3D · · Score: 3, Insightful
      And it's a dupe!
      I'm wondering why slashdot have so high amount of dupes. It seems the editors are spending so much time reading submissions, that they have no time to read slashdot itself. The solution could be a two tier system: After any first-tier editor accepted submission second tier editor (who is bound to read slashdot) checking it for dupes, obviuos error, dead links etc.
    2. Re:And Sarah Mclachlan sings! by g051051 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I actually got an answer to this. According to CmdrTaco, they almost always know it's a dupe, but they rerun the story if they get I high rate of submissions. The theory is that if readers are still submitting the story in large batches, then they didn't see it the first time.

      Of course, this might just be one they missed...

    3. Re:And Sarah Mclachlan sings! by SamSim · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In that case, wouldn't it make more sense to find some way to bring the still-popular story back to the top, instead of presenting the same thing as new news twice?

  5. record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    46 hours and 34 minutes, surely this has got to be getting close to a duping record

  6. Burnin' Karma by Frodo+Crockett · · Score: 5, Funny

    Blackmailing sysadmin with threat of slashdotting - $10,000
    Posting the article twice after he pays up - Priceless

    --
    "The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
  7. Scientists at Blistering Pace! by lo0ol · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's amazing what science is doing nowadays. First we're applauding the efforts of one group's efforts to create a new technique to make nanotube sheets, and only a few days later a NEW technique comes by! Fantastic!

  8. Dear ScuttleMonkey! by Inoshiro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I appreciate your effort to oust CmdrTaco as the #1 dupe poster, but this simple first-step is but a small part of a journey. CmdrTaco has done this for far longer than you.

    He has also duped himself more than once, something you'll have to master before dethroning him.

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  9. Re:nanotubes? by jurt1235 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The problem with the foam is that Nasa loves to leave the shuttle outside for days with an unstable foam (suspectable from sun hardening/creating cracks, soaking up moisture from the atmosphere which then freezes, widening the cracks). The temperature difference between outside and inside of the foam can reach about 100Kelvin. If they would shield it from the sun, do not drive it out to early and keep it nicely aircoed and conditioned, the foam will probably stay better. If really good aircoed, or with more accurate launch windows, the foam might not bee needed at all.

    Adding a protective net around the just described properties of the foam, will makes you run the risk that the foam will really behave bad. The foam could instead of fail in pieces fail as a whole, causing this ultra strong net to fly around in un unpredictable way.
    Adding the net not around the foam but instead around the shuttle will take care that shuttle arrives in one piece in space. The material however is not heat proof. It will fail under high temperature, actually the outside of the space shuttle is a "controlled" failure, in which after several flights certain parts are replaced. If your net fails on the way back, the shuttle can still loose the vital tiles and not land in one part.

    Your idea is not a bad one, and does not need a superhightech foam perse. Just a flexible PE layer could do the trick. The tank will never gets really hot (it is dumped before that happens, and then burns itself on the way down, nobody cares about that part of the trip). Maybe adding a second wiring in the foam itself with some fiber will help too, it will be more complex though.

    Last but not least: this problem is a problem invented by Nasa. The foam would not or be less necessary if Nasa used a different fuel (kerosine like the Russians), or would keep the shuttle in a lower surrounding temperature condition.

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    My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
  10. Breakthrough discovery! by Alsee · · Score: 3, Funny

    Slashdot invents new way to duplicate nanotubes!

    -

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    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  11. Bravery! by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 3, Funny

    Show me a man who can joke about small penises and link to his wife's blog in the same post and I'll show you a man who knows no fear.

    --
    Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
  12. Enough already! I want my ... by KlaymenDK · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... monofilament "splendid cheese cutter"[1].

    And please refrain from modding me Funny. I am in fact serious: All this nano-research is fine and dandy, but it really doesn't _do_ much for us until actual products emerges on the consumer market. "us" being you and me, as opposed to science and nano-technology research(ers).

    In all sincerety, it would be great to see infinitely sharp and durable cheese cutters, or full-body workclothes that are strong and light, or, for that matter, that fabled space elevator. We are, after all, living in the (also-fabled) 21st century.

    ______
    [1] Arthur C. Clarke, "Foundations of Paradise" p.53 (ISBN 0446677949)

  13. Nanoshells (speres) online @ PBS/Nova by turnstyle · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Rather than dwell on the dupe thing, here's something new to check out...

    PBS Nova is offering online playback of a really neat series called Science Now.

    The second episode included a neat profie of researcher Naomi Halas who studies nanoshells -- spheres rather than tubes. One potential appication is as a treatment for cancer.

    --
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  14. Read before you jump to conclusions by llamaxing · · Score: 3, Informative

    You guys just love jumping to conclusions, don't ya? I bet even after I post this, there will still be comments about "duping" to follow. You see, off the bat ya gotta realize that this article says multiwalled nanotubes -- usually it's just "carbon nanotube sheets", giving the idea it's two-sided like a sheet of aluminum foil. Moreover, it doesn't say they created the strongest nanotubes, but rather a new and faster way of developing them.