A new stationary X-ray device based on carbon nanotubes has scientists in North Carolina excited. If it works as expected–getting images from multiple angles without mechanical motion–scanners can be made cheaper, use less electricity and produce higher-resolution images. They’ll also be smaller and faster. The device, which works by emitting a scanning X-ray beam made up of multiple smaller beams, is the first significant improvement in X-ray technology in a hundred years.

Discovered about a decade ago, “carbon nanotubes” are tiny bits of carbon that are very strong tubular structures formed from a single layer of carbon atoms and are only about a billionth of a meter in diameter.

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