#nanotubes

Copper's biggest rival yet? New carbon nanotube fibers could reshape wiring for EVs, drones and aircraft

Spanish researchers have demonstrated a scalable manufacturing process for carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers with electrical conductivity comparable to that of copper and aluminum. The result, published in Science, is a breakthrough for the future of electrification in aerospace, electric vehicles (EVs), drones and related applications, which require lightweight and high-strength electrical wiring. CNTs have long been considered as ideal building blocks for electrical conductors, owing to their unique combination of low density and electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. Until now, however, they have not offered the electrical conductivity required to present a realistic alternative at an industrial scale to traditional materials, in particular copper.

Escape from Death

Flu virus can spread via tunnelling tube-like structures they induce between cells, but how this process is initiated is unclear. Here, researchers find that the tube formation correlates with the onset of apoptosis – a particular form a cell death in response to infection

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Daniel Weir and colleagues

MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, UK

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in PLOS Pathogens, June 2025

After doing a graphene mon, I redid my Vantablack mon from last year yet again. The prevo is based on a Lamellibrachia tube worm while the evo is more of the better known Giant Tube Worm. These tube worms are known to live off of chemosynthetic bacteria that are in their gut as they live near hydrothermal vents.

VANTA in Vantablack refers to Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays as the material is made of a bunch of carbon nanotubes. There are darker materials than the more well known Vantablack, but those use similar techniques.

Tuburm (Dark/Ground): Tuburms like to meet up with other Tuburms at the bottom of the ocean, specifically, near hotspots. Tuburm’s natural diet is toxic to most other mons, but they are able to sustain off of it despite having no mouth.

The Antimatterator’s Newest Feature

Hello again! Dr. Teranta here! Development of the Antimatterator is proceeding swimmingly! I’ve even begun work on a useful new component: Nanotubes!

See, I’ve seen the Antimatterator’s grid occasionally configure itself in such a way that it actually blocks the particles from reaching the collection containers. Previously when this happened, I was forced to simply discard the unobtainable particles and generate a new configuration, but no more!

Carbon Nanotubes So Light That They Float.

Carbon Nanotubes are tubular structures made entirely of carbon that have an extremely small diameter. They can, theoretically, be made as long as needed. Although, some of the largest Nanotubes have a length of around half a meter, giving a ratio of length to diameter of 100,000,000:1.

The next major revolution in computer chip technology is now a step closer to reality. Researchers have shown that carbon nanotube transistors can be made rapidly in commercial facilities, with the same equipment used to manufacture traditional silicon-based transistors – the backbone of today’s computing industry. 

Carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) are more energy-efficient than…