For instance, they can abruptly and reversibly snap from one shape to another under load. The first group includes macro-applications, where armies of nanotube molecules might line up to form a light, strong wire or a composite that could be unbeatable as a material for making lightweight vehicles for space, air and ground. If the costs ever permit, these materials might be used in the elements of bridges, or of tall, earthquake-resistant buildings or towers. Light ammunition and bulletproof vests can be envisaged. On the scale of the very small, the authors see an even broader spectrum of possibilities for the use of single nanotubes.
Recent breakthroughs are significant, but better ways of nanotube making are needed.
They may come as a gradual extension of the current methods, or the solution may lie in processes entirely different and unexpected. The future of nanotube science is full of surprises, some of them peculiar, some with the actual promise to improve our lot. American Scientist is an illustrated bimonthly magazine of science and technology published by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. But by entering the forest, they are also unwittingly entering a dangerous cycle of disease usually restricted to wildlife. As the result of a complicated sequence of events, people have become frequent accidental hosts for ticks and the disease agents they carry, including the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that causes Lyme disease.