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New Technique For 2D Imaging Of Nanostructures
NanotechNews.com writes: "It seems that researchers (One of those is Norm Bartelt) at the U.S. Department of Energy?s Sandia National Laboratory have created a new way to represent self-assembling nanostructures (The bottom up approach of nanotechnology). They can record in real time, real space (real time video) the nanostructures, which self-assemble and transform. They used a low-energy electron microscope (LEEM). Furthermore the core of the news is: "Theorists long have believed that competing attractive and repulsive inter-atomic interactions can lead to the spontaneous formation of ordered patterns in widely varying chemical and physical systems. Potentially, such patterns could be used as templates for nanostructure fabrications.""
Someday I can have a 1E-10000m sculpture of my naked body.
for the wallpaper industry
Just imagine self aligning wallpaper that glues itself to the wall.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
A while back, we saw a method for moving objects around using complex waveforms
It occured to me that this basic idea (at extremely higher frequencies) could be used to move nanoscale structures around.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
so many times have experiments proven intution wrong.
Says Sandia researcher Richard Plass, "Kinetics say that 10,000 moving atoms should go anywhere. Nobody really expected an assembly would arise."
Whoever said life couldn;t evolve just cuz it's probabilistically impossible for a random process to create something as intelligent as human(allright with the exception of / . ers), needs to think again.
How far is 2-D from 3-D (or at least multiple layers of 2-D) nanostructures? And then how far from those 3-D nano-structures to 3-D human-touchable sized structures? Primitive matter replication may not be that far away folks, and if you think there are problems now with digital copy protection laws, you ain't seen nuthin yet!
:)
Imagine the chaos to come when a dollar bill, or a stock certificate, or a strand of DNA can be copied perfectly, a molecular twin of the original...
I don't know if we are headed for utopia or armageddon, but at least it's going to be an interesting trip!
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
without bother, of checking the whole post. is machine level computing based on mechanical switches of the nano scale yet?
It's been like that since the 1930's, it was discovered by Nazi scientists who were ordered by Hitler to develop some sort of "catalogueing device". Then, Hitler ordered his scientists to invent a drug so that his tankcrews could fight for days, and they invented Yaba, also known as the hitlerdrug. Currently it's mainly being produced in southeast asia and (re?)gaining popularity in western europe for the past few years.
The primary application of this type of imaging is immediately obvious to any seasoned slashdotter.
man, i guess i should learn ada code'n. or some slac 'n time. dudes relax its just the jest'n fool on a few live wires.
What kind of software do these things run?
www.nanoware.org
Indeed, maybe you could take this a step further and say that a replicator would abolish the concept of "economy" as we know it.
Economy is based on "scarcity", that resources are limited, money being a way of measuring relative worths (albeit poorly). Take that away, and money loses its representative power.
I can think of three possible replacement currencies: 1) Respect 2) Services and 3) Willingness to use replicated weapons.
"if you think there are problems now with digital copy protection laws, you ain't seen nuthin yet!"
Star trek like replicators, Oh my! I can see it now... download your billz here. Seriously though, this would extend IP laws to physical objects since they would also be an arrangement of "numbers" of some kind... hell, they already are. This would open up a serious can of worms and with laws like the DMCA, the chilling effect would be horrible. Granted, I highly doubt a replication device would fall into the hands of consumers without serious copy protections built in. I highly doubt consumers would even be able to buy such devices but lets speculate for a moment.
Now for the funny part - Imagine downloading warez like:
happy_meal.img
vaio_laptop.img
notebook_paper.img
Now, the above examples could be forseen by the industries as bad bad bad. Imagine MacDonalds with a lawsuit against burger pirates. Imagine Sony going bonkers because people are copying their laptop and not buying the hardware. Notebook paper replication will at least save trees. Now, if intricate machines like laptops can be replicated, you'd better believe that such replicators would only be used in the industry to cut manufacturing costs. Create one perfect laptop and clone the hell out of it.
The first example, a happy meal image, is quite interesting to ponder. If such an abundant supply of food could exist, how long before lawsuits fly around when poorer nations use this technology to feed the hungry. Will MacDonalds, Pizza Hut, or even the local grocery store chains throw a fit? I bet they would! It will be like Drug companies going after the third world for cloning their pills, only much worse.
Anyhow, my final thought to throw out to all of you would concern the free software philosophy as it applies to physical objects. Would RMS create an open source hardware equivalent of GNU for the benefit of humanity despite the loss of "potential" revenue for the evil, greedy corporations? Would someone create a good steak and image it for free? Would you check the source first... Anti-virus could have a new meaning in this realm you know. As far as hardware goes, what would stop someone from creating a perfect looking/working laptop that would explode after 5 minutes of use? The world is certainly going to be an interesting place if nanotech has this potential.
I have to say it all looks very cool... but from my understanding of the article (call me stoopid if you so desire) the pattern was predicted based on various things such as the elements involved and temperature. ie. a limited number of factors. Surely that means that there is a realistic limit to the number of patterns that can be created?
I mean, it's possible that this limited number of patterns would be enough to create useful (ie. computational/mechanical) structures at the 100 x nano level, but I can't see this technology leading to the complete matter pattern replication mentioned earlier.
Not to say that we won't someday see complete matter pattern replication, just that methinks this aint it.
-Perc.
As far as my understanding goes, you still need the material to form or build something from. It's not like building something from hot air, (well, at least not if it's not going to be made of CO2, O or N), you still need to provide the atoms you want to build your new stuff from. Your mp3 player uses gold conductors? You need gold. You want to have some nuclear missles for self-defense? You need uraninum or the likes. So, until we can't put single protons, neutrons and eletrons together to make custom made atoms, it's not like star trek. (*sigh*)
Um... I didn't do it!
YO YO YO, mod dat shizit up hommie. dat shit be da BOMB!!!!!!!
i have a confession to make, i posted the parent to this, i just really want some karma points, wait a minute, dont you have to have an account to get points, you fuckers tricked, sonsofbitchs, NO, i dont need periods you grammar whore,
Public data on the low energy electron microscope was first published (as far as i know) in late 1995.
So...my question is: what the hell took these people so long!? i'm happy to finally see results from the
LEEM, a versatile tool that can be used in everything from cancer research to advanced molecular physics
with good effect. Hopefully this is just one of the many breakthroughs we'll see slashdotted as a result of the LEEM.
los lobo mas amore, tango over tempo, at time.
i fear not as the shit i talk, Walks.
They made real-time videos, right? Why are they not offering them up for download? I see no reason to classify them...
"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." -Flaubert
and finally, that chess paint santa is using might be reality!
How do you exchange "willingness to use replicated weapons"?
It seems to me that the currency would be energy, which can't be replicated.
All it takes is nukes and nerves.
The IP implications of this have been touched upon before:
8 21 7
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/02/12/045