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Podcast: IEN Radio
Episode: First You Print It, Then You Shoot It
Description: Tubulanes are theoretical structures that exhibit extraordinary strength because they are made of crosslinked carbon nanotubes. Researchers at Rice University's Brown School of Engineering recently 3D printed structures based on tubulanes, and they tested their strength the only way a red-blooded American institution knows how: they shot them. Tubulanes were first theorized in 1993. While this isn't the exact design, the structures are like really close cousins. The lightweight design is porous but almost as hard as a diamond.In tests, the structures performed up to 10 times better than a solid block of the sa...