The Ufo Connection and Vacuum Tubes

     Up to now, one of the most compelling ‘killer’ arguments used to decry visits to earth from other universes is that the little green men’s spacecraft would be crushed and destroyed by inter-space pressures. But if these aliens have more highly developed technologies than we do, then buckypaper-like materials might well provide the means of making spacecraft that could endure those conditions. Already this notion is being debated in on-line forums with comments such as “I can already see entire spacecraft made of this stuff further reducing launch costs as well as super-strong body armour and who knows what other applications this stuff will have.”

     Carbon nanotubes already have some real-world applications; they are, for instance, being used to strengthen tennis rackets and bicycle frames, but in small amounts only. Reasons for that include the high cost of manufacturing them and the fact that the tubes are so perfectly smooth, making it difficult to ‘glue’ them together. In fact, researchers are examining ways of making them rougher to give the epoxy adhesive used a means of bonding better.

    Incidentally, if carbon nanotube applications in electronics ring a faint bell, your memory is not playing tricks. Back in the 1990s, carbon nanotubes were heralded as the facilitator for a new generation of vacuum tubes (or valves, to me and you). In a number of experiments, carbon nanotubes were used as electron field emitters in triode-type valves and fluorescent lamp tubes. The technique promised dramatically higher efficiency, reduced electron scatter, faster turn-on times and the possibility of making more robust and compact devices. Little has been heard since, however.