Peter Burke and Chris Rutherglen of U.C. Irvine have built a carbon nanotube AM radio. The teeny tiny device is thousands of times thinner than a human hair, which means that we could soon all be listening to our tunes through our follicles. Well OK, maybe that’s a bit far fetched, but why not plait a whole Hi-Fi system into your eyebrows? No, fair enough, that’s pretty silly too. Take a look at the video and see if you can spot the radio, because we sure as heck can’t.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, created a carbon nanotube “demodulator” that can translate AM radio waves into sound waves. In a recent demonstration, the researchers used it to transmit classical music wirelessly from an iPod to a speaker several feet away. Carbon nanotubes are man-made microscopic mesh rods composed entirely of carbon atoms. Their incredible strength and other unique properties have led scientists to investigate them for use in everything from nano-electronics and space elevators to scaffolds for growing customized bone.