Quote of the day

In computer simulation tests, Boris Yakobson and his colleagues at North Carolina State University subjected the stringlike nanotubes to extreme stresses. "We wanted to see how flexible or brittle they are," said Yakobson, "and found they're amazingly flexible, unusual for graphite, which in large scale seems brittle." In twisting, bending, compressing and putting the virtual nanotubes on the rack, the physicists showed the structures could be stretched by almost 30 percent without breaking. Theoretically, they were strong enough to create a thread able to sustain 150 GPa (gigapascals), equivalent to holding a 20-ton weight on a 1 millimeter thread.

Read the entire article at Omni Magazine.