Nanotube carbon fibre ribbon created.

[Samildanach]

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/0508.../050815-8.html

Looks as though one of the final building blocks required for the space elevator has been overcome. Hopefully they can start building it now.

[rcne]

Nice, I read about this,it seems like only one year ago. They claimed that it would be possible to get the elevator going within a decade.

The main problems were engineering and manufacturing technicalities. Looks like they just solved a big one.

[belverron]

That's my school ^.^

[belverron]

UTD whoosh!

[Resolute]

Screw that, I'm not paying $8 a month to read one article. But I think I get the gist.

Nanotubes and nano-everything is the way of the future. Believe it.

[Morgan_Freeman]

I won't believe it, I'll subscribe to it.

If I do a graduate degree (undecided) It'll probably be in nano.
I'm a physics major now, but I'm thinking of switching to materials sciences.

[SteveA]

If electronics takes a dump (not impossible), nanotechnology would be a great alternate career.

Imagine now that when we write a program for a computer, we merely get information moved around but little of anything physical (except maybe a hard copy printed out). With a nanotech computer, a program could assemble something down to the level of atoms. That would be an entirely new revolution, likely even larger than the one electronics created.

Think about how easy it would be to get into space if the components to do this could simply be programmed into a nanotechnology constructor and raw materials fed in. There's a variety of carbon structure stronger than diamonds, and we could possibly create it down to an atomic level so it would have fewer imperfections also. I don't know how strong it would be in comparison to diamonds but it would be fun to see what new things we could just with the ability to create that alone, much less all the other possibilities.

We're slowing in advancements in raw electronic power. The gains are made largely in architecture but being able to create mechanical machines on an atomic level would open up incredible possibilities. Though it might seem far fetched, it's not impossible to envision a machine that through solar power could build an entire house from nothing but a raw plot of dirt, sunlight and some time (and an adequately designed program ... which is a bit tougher). That might change the interpretation of a solar power "plant"

Then again, we could also see a new can of worms opened with this technology - a computer virus wouldn't exist as states in an electronic circuit so there'd be less "virtual" in virtual reality but it's just a matter of time before these things are possible, so it's not a bad idea to get in on the ground floor.

[Resolute]

Quote by: SteveA There's a variety of carbon structure stronger than diamonds...

I'm sorry, but this is not my understanding of modern carbon structures. I was under the impression that Diamond was a perfect 12 on the SI hardness rating system (I forget what its called), and pretty much everything else is measured reletive to it. Carbon Nanotubes, although they have a strength:mass ratio 100x better than steel, still do not approach diamonds for sheer unbreakability. If I'm not mistaken, there may be some other carbon structures which have a greater heat resistance than diamond, but otherwise I think you are mistaken.

If I am wrong about this (and you can back it up with sources), please let me know. Lord knows I'm not a materials engineering major or anything.

[tman_ndsu08]

I'd be curious to know: how well does diamond do under tension?

I wouldn't be suprised if it was the best material on the planet at resisting compression since it's the hardest. But since it's a crystal structure, I would think that tension would snap it easily. Am I wrong?

[Osborn F Enready]

Damn good question T-Man. Anyone know?