Small is really big!

Top right: A member of the fullerene family, carbon nanotubes are tiny cylinders of carbon atoms that conduct electricity as efficiently as copper and have 100 times the strength of steel at one-sixth the weight. Above, Robert Curl, far left, recipient of a Nobel Prize for his role in the discovery of fullerenes, launches a soccerball, representing an electron, through the giant nanotube model.

Bottom Right: Matteo Pasquali, left, assistant professor of chemical engineering, walks the length of the carbon nanotube model alongside Richard Smalley, University Professor and director of Rice’s Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory. Smalley holds the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of fullerenes, a family of carbon molecules that includes buckyballs and carbon nanotubes.

Bottom left: Carlos Garcia, right, of Rice’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, joins NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell, left, and U.S. District Court Judge Lynn N. Hughes as they measure and make the official record of the model’s 1,181-foot length. The signed and notarized paperwork has been submitted to Guinness World Records as the world’s largest nanotube model. Following its assembly, a 400-foot segment of the model was carried to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, for future display.