Thom Complexes and the Spectrum tmf

Many interesting spectra can be constructed as Thom spectra of easily constructed bundles. Mahowald showed that $\mathit{bu}$ and $\mathit{bo}$ cannot be realized as $E_1$ Thom spectra. We use related techniques to show that $\mathit{tmf}_{(2)}$ also cannot be realized as an $E_1$ Thom spectrum.