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[Starver]

Around a 10 million nanometres in length as a typical maximum, last I heard.  i.e. 1cm per thread.   Somewhere (recently, was it this thread?) I mentioned how winding them into longer threads (like short lengths of cotton fibre into thread, into string, into rope, etc) isn't going to give you the same strength of material (might be like graphite layers slipping over each other, if not worse).

Even if you had a 'perfect' weave of threads (or one thread that runs back and forth as a weave then turns the final corner and is the weft as well), a one-nanotube-thick weave would probably not be a sufficient ballistic protection.  It may act like a silk undershirt does with arrows (tangles with the projectile, slows its penetration and makes it easier to extract again without additional underlying tissue damage) but you'd need a multi-layer/laminar solution, much as with existing ballistic protection fabrics.  I think the advantage (if woven nanofabric is more advantageous than kevlar-weave/whatever) is that you can have thinner/lighter 'impermeable' (or at least sacrificially impeding) layers, allowing more/thicker interstitial padding material and/or far more other nanofibre layers to add to the impermeability/impedimenting capability, yet not be bulkier.

But that's all my surmise, it's been a while since I've been in a Materials Science lab (pre-dating a lot of the newer developments), so I'm open to being updated.

[Osmosis Jones]

Yeah Starver, you're pretty spot on. If you want thin, light, flexible protection, coupling a nanoweave with things like thixotropic fluids is a better bet; the harder you hit thixotropics, the more rigid they get, but press softly and they flow around. Think custard or silly putty.

[Siquo]

D3O, for instance. Cool stuff.

[Starver]

From the Wiki page[1] on that substance: "Richard Palmer was sitting at a ski lodge in the Alps nursing a bruised knee and thought to himself that there had to be a better, more comfortable way to protect oneself from genital injuries."  Begs the question: Who did what to who, now?  (Or is he related to that Rura Penthe mines alien from ST6, that Kirk takes down with an unexpectedly illegal kick?)


(Ah, looks to have been a direct change from "sporting injuries", last week.  I wonder if I should revert it.)

[1] Look for D3o ("Dee Three Oh") or you probably get a "Not to be confused with..." link to follow, instead.

[MonkeyHead]

Hmm. So, imbedding carbon nanotubes in say ceramic or kevlar armour plates isnt worth anyones time? I mean, ceramics can be poured molten, have a liberal sprinkling of nanotubes added, and left to set.

[10ebbor10]

Hmm. So, imbedding carbon nanotubes in say ceramic or kevlar armour plates isnt worth anyones time? I mean, ceramics can be poured molten, have a liberal sprinkling of nanotubes added, and left to set.

At the moment, not really. They are way to short to be usefull. They also have a strong tensile strength, so they'll stop the bullet, but let the force through.

From the moment we can reliably reach a certain length, (I believe it was 0.4 cm or something or maybe 4 cm) we can use them in a steel/nanotube alloy that should be strong enough to support a space elevator.

[MaximumZero]

From the Wiki page[1] on that substance: "Richard Palmer was sitting at a ski lodge in the Alps nursing a bruised knee and thought to himself that there had to be a better, more comfortable way to protect oneself from genital injuries."  Begs the question: Who did what to who, now?  (Or is he related to that Rura Penthe mines alien from ST6, that Kirk takes down with an unexpectedly illegal kick?)


(Ah, looks to have been a direct change from "sporting injuries", last week.  I wonder if I should revert it.)

[1] Look for D3o ("Dee Three Oh") or you probably get a "Not to be confused with..." link to follow, instead.

I was going to say, "Maybe that's supposed to say 'general'"?

[Osmosis Jones]

The LHC makes another great contribution to science; testing the limits of Journal editors' sanity!

I give you a paper with over 1000 authors.

[10ebbor10]

The LHC makes another great contribution to science; testing the limits of Journal editors' sanity!

I give you a paper with over 1000 authors.

That's peanuts. Some biology researches had one with more than 10.000.

[Osmosis Jones]

Linky?

(Edit; best I've been able to find is this, are you sure you didn't mean citations?)

Also, while googling, I found this.

[palsch]

The LHC makes another great contribution to science; testing the limits of Journal editors' sanity!

I give you a paper with over 1000 authors.

For a moment I thought that was Physics Review Letters and wondered how they fit them all into the four page limit.

Browsing some of the Atlas publications they normally go just over the usual limit at 5 or 6 pages, then include another dozen-plus page author list. God help anyone who isn't CERN and wants to use more than four pages to explain their new breakthrough...

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Huh. My college's network gives me auto-access to that journal.

Though really, we started using et al. for a reason.

[Osmosis Jones]

Huh. My college's network gives me auto-access to that journal.

Not surprising really; the Phys Rev family of journals are one of the major ones in the hard sciences, so if your uni has a physics, chem, or engineering department, you're pretty well guarenteed it.

Also, apparently Science (the journal; to those not in the know, this is one of the 2 best journals in the world) offered my university 50 free 2-year subscriptions, and the head of my department recommended me as one of the recipients. 

Just goes to show, if you're given the chance to hit the pub with the various heads of department on fridays, DO SO!

Expect lots of cutting edge SCIENCE from Science being posted here in the future.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm pretty sure Science will hire mercenaries to assassinate you with extreme prejudice if you start posting science from Science in a public place.

[Osmosis Jones]

Let me clarify; links to the abstracts, and a brief summation of the gist of any interesting articles.

_{Pleasedon'tkillmeofgreatandpowerfulScienceninjas!}