Electronic cotton

A group of researchers in the United States, Italy, and France have invented transistors made from cotton fibers. They envision such devices being woven into clothing capable of measuring pollutants, T-shirts that display information, and carpets that sense how many people are crossing them. ??We want to create a seamless interface between electronics and textiles,?? says Juan Hinestroza, director of the Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y.