ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Carbon nanotubes in medicine

Okay, so you know how sometimes when you get sick, your doctor gives you medicine to help you feel better? Well, some scientists have found a really tiny material called carbon nanotubes that could help doctors treat people even better!

Carbon nanotubes are like really, really, really small pieces of super strong material made out of carbon atoms (the same stuff that pencil lead is made of). They are so small that you can't see them with your eyes, you need a special microscope. But even though they are teeny-tiny, they are still really strong and can carry things really well.

Now, back to medicine. Sometimes when people get sick, they need medicine that goes inside their body to help make them better. Carbon nanotubes could be used to carry that medicine to exactly where it needs to go in the body. This is really important because if the medicine goes to the wrong place, it might not work as well or could even make someone feel worse!

Carbon nanotubes could also help doctors see inside the body better. Normally, doctors can take pictures of the inside of the body with an X-ray machine or something called an MRI. But with carbon nanotubes, they could see even smaller details and find out what's going on inside someone's body more easily.

So, carbon nanotubes are like really small but really strong materials that can help doctors give better medicine and see inside the body better. Cool, right?