Carbon nanotubes. Coloured scanning tunnelling micrograph (STM) of carbon nanotubes (running diagonally towards lower right). These tubes comprise rolled sheets of carbon atoms. Individual atoms are seen as the bumps on the surface of the tubes. The tubes are structurally-related to fullerenes, cages of carbon atoms discovered in 1985. The tiny size of the tubes has raised hopes that they may find uses in electrical components far smaller than those currently available. The STM obtains images by moving a thin probe over a material's surface, which follows the topography of the surface and translates it into an image. Magnification: x6,000,000 at 6x6cm size.