What a sci-fi world we’re living in, and most of us don’t even notice:
For years, scientists have tinkered with creating wires only nanometers — billionths of a meter — wide. A nanometer is to an inch what a small grape is to the whole planet.
Instead of building such wires by pouring metal down long tubes, some investigators instead are experimenting with biological materials that can arrange themselves into strings spontaneously — DNA and bacteria-killing viruses, for examples. These strands would then serve as the backbone for metal to attach onto, making wires.