There's an old Monty Python gag about a man who inherits 122,000 miles of string and wants to cash in. Unfortunately, the string comes in 3" lengths, rendering it useless.

A similar hitch has stalled carbon nanotubes on their march from lab-bench wonder toward commercial stardom.

The tiny, submarine-shaped bits of carbon have amazing strength, electrical conductivity and other properties that make materials scientists drool. But they typically can be manufactured in only very short lengths, and scientists have had little success clumping them together efficiently.

Read the complete story . (Houston Chronicle)