X-Message-Number: 30045
From: 
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:09:25 EST
Subject: Re: Nano-filaments

Ultra-strong filaments made of a single molecule -- which these are -- have  
been an engineer's dream for a long time.  Around 1953 the Ealing Hill  

Studios in England made a series of low budget superb intelligent comedies. In  
The 
Man in the White Suite they get the science exactly right. Alec Guiness is a  
crackbrained boffin who invents this. It can't be broken practically and can  
only be cut with a torch. It can't be dirtied and so cannot be dyed. Convinced 
 it will help mankind, he has it made into a white suit, which he wears to  
demonstrate it. Soon tailors hate him because suits will never wear out and  
they'll be ruined, and in fact everyone hates him and starts chasing him and  
he's wearing this shining conspicuous suit and... it gets better.
 
These comedies are famously good and any young nanologist who hasn't seen  
this ... should.
 
Alan
 
 

From the  LiftPort forum

The University of Cambridge will announce that it has  produced 20 Gpa
carbon nanotube ribbons

Recently, Dr. Alan Windle at  the University of Cambridge announced
the development of 20 GPa yarns  derived from nanotubes. These
materials are produced from nanotube yarns  and contain graphitic
hyperfilaments composed of nanotubes, which exhibit  strengths
comparable to an individual nanotube but over macroscopic length  scales.

******

This still isn't strong enough for a space  elevator, but it's a big
step in that direction.

For those like me  who still tend to think in English units, 20 GPa is
about 2.9 million psi.  That's close to 30 times as strong as aluminum alloys.

Keith Henson  






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