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Published online 17 August 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news040816-4

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Nanotubes may have no 'temperature'

Could quantum effects plague miniature devices?

Physicists have made a bizarre discovery: the concept of temperature is meaningless in some tiny objects. Although the concept of temperature is known to break down on the scale of individual atoms, research now suggests that it may also fail to apply in rather larger entities, such as carbon nanotubes.

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