NASA Gets to Work on Carbon Nanotubes

Electronics Weekly ^ | 11/30/05 | Steve Bush

[KevinDavis]

NASA has begun work on a protein sensor based on carbon nanotubes.

“We are working on proteins and have some preliminary data,” Dr. Jun Li of NASA’s Ames Research Center told Electronics Weekly.

The design is based on a structure that the organization has been using for DNA sensing. “The bio-sensor is basically an electrochemical sensor,” said Li. “The innovation is in how to constrain a local electrode to optimize sensitivity.”

[KevinDavis]

[Brett66]

For a second there, I thought they were working on nanotubes to make a space elevator.

[Nipplemancer]

do you think environmentalist wackos would allow it? after all, birds fly and the space-elevator would be high up, so it would make the birds detour ten or fifteen feet from their normal migratory flight, thereby making extinct rare and exotic birds that could fight cancer or aids or something.

[SunkenCiv]

Purdue 'Metamaterial' Could Lead To Better Optics, Communications
Science Daily | Purdue University | 2005-11-30
Posted on 11/30/2005 9:13:33 PM PST by sourcery
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1531765/posts

[Walkingfeather]

“The bio-sensor is basically an electrochemical sensor,” said Li. “The innovation is in how to constrain a local electrode to optimize sensitivity.”


Sheesh, that old bit.....

[RadioAstronomer]

Still cannot see how a stable elevator can be built. A few of "ran the numbers" and just don't see it.

[Nipplemancer]

in the terms of materials, there's no way that it could be built now or within the next ten to fifteen years. We don't have anything light enough and strong enough to handle the stresses. Nano-tubes are just now in their infancy. Even when we can build it, there's no guarantee that it'll come into fruition. I'd wager that within the next one hundred years there will be a space elevator though, hopefully by then we'll have the means and the need for it.