This is a classic article from Â鶹´«Ã½’s archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations
A JAPANESE scientist has discovered cylindrical carbon molecules, which he has dubbed “buckytubes” because of their similarity to fullerenes, or “buckyballs”. The cylinders are made of sheets of carbon atoms, arranged in hexagons, as in graphite. But instead of forming closed cages, as they do in fullerenes, the carbon atoms form open-ended cylinders.
Sumio Iijima, an electron microscopist at the fundamental research laboratory of NEC, the Japanese electronics giant, in Tsukuba, discovered the tubes when attempting to examine buckyballs in his transmission electron…
