Researchers have made the equivalent of a tiny dimmer switch out of carbon nanotubesthe tubular cousins of buckyballs. They found the electrical resistance of a nanotube contact depended on its orientation on a graphite surface. The nanotubes have a hexagonal atomic lattice, and the change in resistance appeared as the lattice interlocked with the atoms of the graphite. The effect might lead to molecular switches that vary current as they are turned, says Mike Falvo, a physicist at the University of North Carolina (
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.