Carbon Nanotube

A new form of carbon, configurationally equivalent to two-dimensional graphene sheet rolled into a tube ... offers amazing possibilities to create future nanoelectronics devices, circuits, and computers. NASA, Ames Research Center. Another way of putting it: Nanotubes are 100 times stronger than steel, as flexible as plastic, and look to be one of the greatest conductors the world has ever known. "In another ten to 15 years," writes one analyst, "carbon nanotubes will probably be incorporated into microprocessors, gradually replacing copper wires. Not only would this make computer chips faster and more energy-efficient, they would likely be cheaper to produce."