TINY they may be, but carbon nanotubes have found a remarkable range of uses, from stretchy loudspeakers to artificial photosynthesis. Now use as a fertiliser can be added to the list.

Plant biologist Mariya Khodakovskaya and nanotechnologist Alexandru Biris, both at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, planted tomato seeds in a growth medium that contained carbon nanotubes. They found that the seeds germinated sooner and seedlings grew faster than those in a non-treated medium (ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn900887m).

Nanostructures have been reported to boost germination before, but no explanation for the phenomenon has been offered until now. …