The Nanotech BC Blog: Tougher Armor through Carbon Nanotubes

I suppose that it's inevitable that one of the first showcases for new technology is weapons. It's slightly more comforting to see that some of the new materials nanotechnology is enabling are meant to protect lives instead of kill them.

The BBC news has a good article on how carbon nanotubes are being used to create "future fibres" for use within body armor.

"Our fibre is up there with the existing high performance bibres such as Kevlar", said Professor Windle. But he added: "We've seen bits that are much better than Kevlar in all respects."

The article also has a good section explaining the process of making the super-strong material. They've convinced me that what there producing has a lot of promise, but there are a few conspicuous and unanswered questions: How much does it cost to produce, and how scalable is the manufacturing process?