Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: February 29, 2004
Article Type: Journal

In a technology of the miniature, carbon super-thread made from nanotubes, cylindrical molecules of carbon, is now being spun at Rice University. This thread can be wound into cables many times as strong as steel. Down the road it might make unbeatable kite line. In a related development, scientists at Cornell University’s NanoScale Science and Technology Facility using the technology that etches tiny wires and components onto computer chips have constructed an invisibly tiny silicon guitar which they can play by using a laser beam to pluck the strings. The guitar twangs at 40 million cycles per second, putting it 17 octaves above what human ears take for music. If so desired, the researchers could apparently make an ultra tiny kite too, in the range of 10 millionths of a meter long. The question is: could kite be made to fly, as the guitar has been made to twang? The answer is not apparent at this time, but success in such an odd venture should not be ruled out.

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