Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) have extraordinary mechanical properties ideal as reinforcements in composites and offer the possibility of a tunable band gap for electronic applications. But synthesizing BNNTs has proven difficult, with current methods requiring high temperatures, special-ized instrumentation and producing nanotubes of low quality contaminated with impurities. Now researchers from Michigan Technological University believe they have changed all this using an approach that makes the growth of BNNTs as simple and convenient as carbon nanotubes [C.H. Lee et al., Chem. Mater. (2009), doi:10.1021/cm903287u]. Using catalytic chemical vapordeposition (CCVD) at 1200 ◦C with MgO, Ni or Fe catalysts, Yoke Khin Yap and his team have achieved patterned growth of BNNTs directly on Si substrates for the first time