A new carbon nanotool springs to life
Multiwall nanotubes contain several concentric cylinders of carbon atoms, one packed inside another, like nesting wooden dolls. Now, physicists have managed to peel back the outermost layers on one end of such a structure just 100 atoms or so wide and pull out the inner cylinders.
The finding suggests that these nanotubes could, one day, be the tiny bearings and springs of nanosize machines.