For years now, nanotechnology researchers have been promising us carbon nanotubes as the basis for numerous breakthrough applications such as multifunctional high-strength fibres, coatings and transparent conducting films. Not to mention as a cure for cancer and a solution to the energy crisis. However, while the thermal, electrical and mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are unique, materials engineers have been struggling to assemble CNTs into macroscopic structures that retain enough of the properties of the constituent nanotubes. CNTs are notoriously difficult to work with and, because researchers haven't found efficient ways yet to assemble them, the resulting materials demonstrate only a small fraction of the possible single-object properties of CNTs. So we are still waiting for those breakthrough applications. However, new research reported this week has now established an industrially relevant process for assembling carbon nanotubes that allows them to efficiently be made into fibers, coatings and films - the basic forms of material that can be used in engineering applications.