Nanoscale machines and circuits could one day be assembled by exploiting the way immune systems latch onto invading bacteria and viruses. The idea has already been successfully used to guide individual nanotubes into position on a metal surface. Researchers desperately need a way to assemble nanoscale devices. Nanotubes made from various substances can be used in many ways when building these devices: as passive components such as structural supports or conducting wires, or as the basis for active elements such as transistors or light emitters. But connecting up even a single nanotube between two points in a circuit, say, is much easier said than done. That's because a newly synthesised clump of nanotubes is much like a jumbled heap of lumber. The challenge is to pick one out and place it where you want it, says Rajesh Naik, biotechnology project leader at the US Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.
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