Features: June 17, 2002

Recent scientific breakthroughs at Rensselaer have attracted the attention of national media. Science magazine featured Rensselaer-related research in its March, April, and May issues:

The May 3 issue of Science* featured work by researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and collaborators at Tsinghua University in Beijing, who have created a simplified method for making long, continuous, hair-like strands of carbon nanotubes that are as much as eight inches in length. This breakthrough is a first step toward creating such products as microcables for electrical devices or mechanically robust electrochemical actuators for artificial muscles.

The April 26 issue of Science* featured a surprising new property of single-walled nanotubes discovered at Rensselaer. When exposed to a conventional photographic flash, the nanotubes emit a loud pop and then ignite.

On March 8 Science* reported that a team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Rensselaer observed phenomena that could point to the possibility of nuclear fusion using a novel technique for plasma confinement ("bubble fusion"). This experiment was also reported in Business Week as well as numerous other national media outlets.

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