Last weeks announcement of the production of sheets of nanotubes led to a flurry of speculation. Our trekkie chums at the Foresight Institute immediately jumped on the possibility of making solar sails and then claimed that they invented the idea fifteen years before nanotubes were ‘discovered’ (damn those pesky scientists and their experiments!) while Auto Industry got all excited about the possible introduction of nanotechnology into Formula One (shh, dont tell anybody but weve been involved in nanometrology for Formula One teams since 1998). We can only hope that the introduction of nanotechnology, which apparently promises the creation of racecars with stronger, lighter bodies that could also serve as batteries goes somewhat smoother than most attempts to introduce F1 to the US.
One of the most balanced and worth reading responses to this announcement came from Monkeysign, which contrasted the nanotube sheets announcement with a somewhat more low-key one from GE (also discussed by Jack Uldrich at Motley Fool) entitled When is a breakthrough a breakthrough?”
In the hype filled world of nanotech, its a very pertinent question. For a more rational and accurate asessment of where carbon nanotubes actually will be used start here.