LiveScience's Image of the Day

World's Smallest Hypodermic Needle

Friday February 3, 2006

More Images...

Scientists have created unusually long carbon nanotubes that could one day be used as tiny hypodermic needles, capable of injecting molecules one at a time.

The above sequence of images shows the creation of a nanotube as a highly focused infrared laser tugs on a polymer membrane that has been colored with a fluorescent dye. The white scale bar indicates 10 micrometers. The nanotubes are about 1 centimeter long and stable enough to maintain their shape indefinitely.

Nanotubes made from other materials are used to transport biochemical applications, but they are typically fragile and usually collapse within a few hours.

The study, conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST), was detailed in the current issue of the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

--Ker Than

Amazing Images: Science & Nature Photos from Our Readers

Credit: NIST

Advertisement

From the Blogs

LiveScience Blogs
  1. Can A Computer Simulation Solve The Mystery Of Dark Matter?
  2. Modern Gossip Magazine Culture Began With Celebrity Obituaries
  3. 12,000 Year Old Shaman Burial Site Discovered In Northern Israel - And It Was A Woman
  4. Learning About Lightning - Interferometer Records Discharge In Detail To The Microsecond
  5. India To The Moon: Chandrayaan-1 Settles Into Lunar Transfer Trajectory
  6. Those Dang Transcription Factors
  7. Pretty Women Make Men Shortsighted
  1. 10.30.2008 | Leonard David
    Private Moon Lander Group Teams with NASA
    Keep an eye out for Odyssey Moon Ventures — one of the contenders in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition — to announce they... ...
  2. 10.25.2008 | Leonard David
    Armadillo Scraps Further Lunar Lander Challenge Attempts
    Update 7: The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is over for the day. John Carmack and his Armadillo Aerospace team have declared no more... ...

Related Items from the LiveScience Store

  1. Go to Store
  2. Go to Store

More Stores to Explore