I’m not qualified to speak technically about carbon nanotubes, but they seem super rad. Basically, one of them is like an atom-thick sheet of carbon wrapped in a tube. Single-walled versions are “about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair”.1 I like to think of them as “space crêpes,” which is probably a terrible comparison. But look at this:
Why are we interested in them? Because of their structure, they have some terrific properties in areas such as electrical and/or thermal conductivity, and especially tensile strength — some have speculated that a fictional filament material in an Arthur C. Clarke book about a space elevator might well, if such a thing were to be invented into existence, be based on or similar to carbon nanotubes (this is a cool, quick little read on that).
In terms of the popular imagination, examination of a Damascus steel blade from the 1600s — weapons famous for their appearance and physical properties such as sharpness — revealed the possible presence of carbon nanotubes in its microstructure.2 While we’ve been intentionally synthesizing nanotubes in recent decades, they were already out there in stuff.
But I’ve said too much for someone who knows so little. Material scientists of the Avocado, you have the floor tonight. . . . Everyone else, Wang Chung tonight ✨