Tiny tubes might help solve one of the world's largest problems-an ample supply of fresh water. A physicist at Boston College is teaming up with an independent inventor to use carbon pipes only a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) across as a fast and energy-efficient means of water desalination. Key to the work is BC professor Zhifeng Ren's discovery of a way to fabricate the tubes as an extremely well-aligned nano "forest."

Select from the choices above to read the entire article.