Talk:Monomolecular wire

Untitled
Ultralisks with monomolecular edged blades? Can anyone confirm? The Zerg don't use any sort of technology, and I doubt they'd evolve monomolecular edges...--Vince Skrapits 22:05, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Canonically, they are stated to possess monomolecular edges, which is all that matters. They may not have "evolved," per se', but be genetically engineered. 199.247.235.10 03:02, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Control of wires
"Wire such as this would in reality not have enough weight to fly properly or place much force behind them (as is the principle of an incision) and would be heavily influenced by the wind."

While I in general I agree with that statement the problem is that small forces would in general govern the “Monowire” like static electrical forces, surface tension, and diffusion instead of inertia and drag due to atmosphere. jake 17:02, 31 December 2006

Merging request
Both are fictionals, both use the same technology. Same topic, let's merge. David Latapie (✒ | @) 15:40, 25 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Seconded. DocWatson42 14:42, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

First appearance in Sci-Fi
This article asserts that the first mention in sci-fi of a material that has monofilament-like properties is in Dune (1965):


 * The prototype of Monomolecular wire is shigawire, as described in Frank Herbert's Dune novels. First making its appearance in Dune (1965)...

However, I was just reading "The Stainless Steel Rat"(1961) by Harry Harrison and came across this passage:


 * ...A shiny blob was fixed there, anchoring a strand so thin that it was invisible, yet I knew was as strong as a cable. The assassin had lowered himself with web spinner, a tiny device that spun a thin strand like a spider. Only the strand’s substance was formed of a single long-chain molecule that could support a man’s weight. It would slice my hands like the sharpest blade if I tried to slide down.

To me, this sounds like monomolecular wire. I'm aware of WP:OR and I'm not trying to claim that Harry Harrison came up with the idea of monomolecular wire, but the claim that it was first used in sci-fi in 1965 by Frank Herbert seems incorrect. 87.113.149.111 (talk) 21:26, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

As an additional point, the section on shigawire seems to go into too much detail (over 300 words) - I would think the bulk of this should be moved to the Shigawire section of the List of Dune terminology page, which is currently only two sentences long 87.112.153.66 (talk) 23:36, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

I would also like to add that the short story "Thin Edge" by Randall Garrett pretty much centers around this technology and is from 1963. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/30869 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.77.191.50 (talk) 18:50, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Monomolecular wires in real life
It would be appropriate to describe similar technologies in real life, like this one. Not that I know any specific uses offhand, though... P.S. The page hasn’t been edited in 6 years. LaundryPizza03 (talk) 16:36, 29 December 2017 (UTC)