Scientists Manufacture Roswell-Like
Material
I have attached a file where Peter Harris, one of
leading researchers in the field, gives a short definition of
nanotubes. You can find it at his website, more specifically at:
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/~scsharip/tubes.htm
Roswell: metal that springs back to shape
Many witnesses of the Roswell incident spoke about a
material resembling lead foil that wouldn't crease or dent, and that
would return to its original shape.
Imagine my surprise when I read the following article
from the July 1997 edition of AMBASSADOR magazine--I don't remember
exactly, but I think it was a Northwest flight and hence the Northwest
Airlines in-flight magazine.
"It's between 10 and 100 times stronger than steel with
one-sixth the weight. It can crumple without breaking, then spring
back to its original shape. Within a few years, it may be used to
reinforce airplane wings and tether satellites to the Earth. No, it's
not Superman's hair. It's the world's strongest fiber.
"The carbon nanotube is thinner than a pencil lead and
made entirely of interlinked graphite atoms. 'This is the strongest
material known,' reports Thomas Ebbesen, a professor of chemistry as
Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France, and a pioneering expert on
the filaments. Rice University physicist Peter Nordlander goes a step
further, echoing the views of most researchers working on the tubes:
'This is quite probably the strongest material that can be made.'
"The reason: Carbon atoms attach to other bits of matter
using a covalent electrical bond, the strongest form of bond between
atoms. The larger the distance between atoms, the weaker the links
binding them together. Carbon's electrical strength and small size
enable it to form a denser, stronger mesh of atomic bonds than any
other material.
"So far, researchers have been able to make tubes no
longer than about 100 microns--a few hundredths of an inch....
"....Nobel chemist Richard Smalley of Rice University
envisions a carbon filament one millimeter in diameter anchoring a
satellite stationed more than 22,000 miles above the globe. The cord
... would weigh about 20 tons, he calculates, and could easily support
its own weight.
"'Who knows what might be possible with nanotubes?'
Ebbesen adds. 'They're the ultimate fiber."