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Recent developments in plastic electronics look set to revolutionize the electronic industry. A variety of applications are expected that are not possible with conventional silicon chips, because of their rigidity and limited size. Ink-jet printing is one of the most promising techniques for making large area, inexpensive plastic electronics on which a range of electronic components can be printed. These include transistor circuits, photovoltaic films, organic light-emitting diodes and photovoltaic films. Paul Beecher and colleagues of the University of Cambridge and co-workers at the University of Waterloo and the London Centre for Nanotechnology have now demonstrated that ink-jet printing can be extended to dispensing solid materials like carbon nanotubes without clogging the ink-jet nozzles.