IS THERE anything carbon nanotubes can’t do? Using them to make transistors about half the size of the silicon ones available today suggests they might help maintain the continual growth of computing power that we have come to rely on.

There are fears that this growth is threatened as engineers run out of ways to shrink silicon transistors and cram more power into chips. Finding new ways to make smaller transistors has become a priority (New Scientist, 6 December 2008, p 35).

But while carbon nanotubes had been considered a potential saviour, making transistors with them has proved to …