New carbon nanotube device to test blood can detect cancer cells and viruses (i.e. HIV).

Using carbon to build 'forests' inside extremely small nanoparticles, scientists from Harvard and MIT, have constructed devices that can specifically bind and trap cells, bacteria and viruses.  Devices based on the technology could be used to detect cancer cells circulating in the blood.  The work, published in the journal Small, proved that the technology works and can be used to create diagnnostic/detection medical devices.