Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Martin McCarthy

Thanks to a recent AP article, there's been a lot of buzz online this week about buckypaper, developed by Dr. Ben Wang at Florida State University's High-Performance Materials Institute, a material made of carbon nanotubes that is "10 times lighter but up to 500 times stronger than steel when stacked and pressed," according to Gear Live's Sheila Franklin.

"The super-strong buckypaper could be layered like papier mâché to build lighter airplanes and cars, or it could be exposed to an electric charge and used to illuminate computer and television screens - and those are just the most obvious applications," writes Discover Magazine's Eliza Strickland.

"Florida State is spinning off a company to make commercial quantities of the nanopaper," writes Daily Tech's Jason Mick. "It plans on initially marketing the paper for aircraft electrical shielding and for military grade EMF shielding. The paper is an excellent conductor and channels harmful electricity and electrical fields away from delicate components. It can shield four times the level mandated by a recent Air Force proposal. Replacing typical copper shielding with the lighter buckypaper would save fuel and weight."

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