REALLY??
Actually they're
really cool from a pure research perspective, but practically it is not yet possible to generate enough quantity or length to really make an impact. Yet. However, this advance is really intriguing - using the tubes to guide a reaction actually had the effect of speeding up the reaction a factor of 100x.
My interest in them is from a structural perspective. They're one of the highest (if not the highest) tensile strength materials known. If you can make the tubes
long enough and
numerous enough then you can start to envision cables made from nanotubes that can support structures like space tethers, negating forever the energy requirement for launching materials into low earth orbit. Just swing them up on an orbiting rotating tether.
Some visionaries have already begun to explore this technology, with materials readily available today. It's possible, but at a prohibitive cost.