Promising advances in the manufacturing of carbon nanotubes that offer both strength and conductivity, from Rice University:

Scientists have created the first pure carbon nanotube fibers that combine many of the best features of highly conductive metal wires, strong carbon fibers and pliable textile thread. In a Jan. 11 paper in the journal Science, researchers from Rice University, the Dutch firm Teijin Aramid, the U.S. Air Force and Israel’s Technion Institute describe an industrially scalable process for making the threadlike fibers, which outperform commercially available products in a number of ways.

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