While the tiny carbon lattice has been fabricated and tested in the lab, it's a very long way off practical use. But this new approach could help us build stronger and lighter materials in the future - which is something that's of great interest to industries such as aerospace and aviation.

    What we're talking about here is something known as a nanolattices - porous structures like the one in the image above that's made up of three-dimensional carbon struts and braces. Due to their unique structure, they're incredibly strong and lightweight.
    Usually these nanolattices are based around a cylindrical framework (they're called beam-nanolattices). But the team has now created plate-nanolattices, structures based around tiny plates.