Here’s a new twist on nanotubes: chemists have found a set of organic molecules that spontaneously assemble themselves into a helical spiral with a hollow core¹.

The tubes ­­– a molecular match for fusilli pasta twists – were discovered by accident, admitted Jeremy Sanders of the University of Cambridge, UK.

His group were making modified naphthalenediimide molecules², cooked up by microwave heating of simpler compounds. But these naphthalenediimide building blocks instantly joined together by weak hydrogen bonds, creating a polymer string that wrapped itself into a helical nanotube.

The direction that the helix twists is controlled by chiral amino acids, used in the synthesis of the building blocks.