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Nanotechnology Harnesses the Power of Light
madirish2600 writes "There's a Washington Post story running about some German scientists who have used light to create a nanotechnology spring. 'Scientists have for the first time used the power of light to create mechanical energy for a microdevice, making a single molecule of plastic drive a tiny machine.'"
Fr0st PiSt
w00t!
This is the first non-fluff story I think I've seen today.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
fy faen, frossent piss.
try biting your ear while claping your hands... good, now you look like a moron
Can I use it to drive this tiny machine?
Can someone explain to me why someone would use use two backwards apostraphes at the beginning, and two double-quotes at the end of a quotation ``like this""?
Great, now lets just hope what ever os they use is secure, I wouldn't want little nano robots being controled by some 12 year old script kitty. Or maybe these could be implanted into digital media to disable your computer if you pirated any software?
Sigs are out of style, so I'm not going to use one...oh wait..
two places both trying to get to ur-anus
Now all they need is a microscopic diver to go off this diving board.
As noted on the Smithsonian Institution's site, the first official American flag had thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, each representing one of the thirteen original states.
The flag icon for Slashdot's 'United States' section is missing its first stripe - the stripe that represents Delaware, the first state admitted to the Union. While a simple oversight could be forgiven, it should be known from here on out that Slashdot is in fact aware of the missing stripe, and even worse, refuses to do anything about it!
This vulgar flag desecration and rabid anti-Delawarism must be put to a stop. Let the Slashdot crew know that we will not accept a knowingly mutilated flag or the insinuation that Delawarians deserve to be cut out of the union. I ask you, what has Delaware done to deserve this insolence, this wanton disregard, this bigotry?
This intentional disregard of a vital national symbol is unpatriotic. Why, the flippant remarks CmdrTaco made about our flag border on terrorism! I urge you to join the protest in each 'United States' story. Sacrifice your karma for your country by pointing out this injustice. Let's all work together to get our flag back. Can you give your country any less?
Slightly off-topic, but imagine the merging of this technology with the whimsical, counter-intuitive machines of Rube Goldberg. The nanosprings could be combined with nanoballs, nanochutes, nanoratchets, nanopteradactyls, etc... to fabricate imaginative contraptions that would only be visible to high-power microscopes.
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
BTW, does anyone know if this technology could be used as a weapon against the USA during WW3??? (the new axis of evil just sucks ass, IMHO)
Azobenzene is known for its kinkiness. That made me laugh. After reading the article, I was thinking, "go go gadget" and some Maxwell Smart type things. Or maybe a fiber-optically powered hamster wheel? Is anyone else, at mention of nanotechnology, immediately reminded of MST3k? Speaking of Nanites, how about that one guy on techTV, that does the "Call for Help" segment? He reminds me of a nanite from MST3k every time I see him.
If you can read this, you are most likely close enough.
an ensey-weensy Slinky.
"look, it's walking!"
"I can't see anything..."
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
there are sites dedicated to Investing in nanotechnology.
www.nanoinvestornews.com
I just cut the vein on my cock! Theres blood everywhere!
Lets get small.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Sure this whole tiny engine thing is good but I just want to know when this nano-technology is going to make ALL women as hot as 7 OF 9
A Beowulf cluster of these things?
Hi -
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Thanks in advance and keep your fingers crossed!
I wonder how feasable this would be in the long term as a replacement for solar panels. How much wattage can you get out of a square meter of light exposed surface?
That's pretty funny. I'd kinda forgotten Delaware existed, and I guess CmdrTaco did too.
For homemade graham crackers
8 tablespoons softened butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons honey
1 cup flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
For marshmallows
3 envelopes of Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Chocolate
High-grade bittersweet or milk chocolate (Valrhona, Cacao du Barry, Callebaut, Scharffen Berger)
Make graham crackers
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Cream the butter, sugars, and honey in a mixer on medium speed until soft and fluffy. Sift together the flours, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon, and pour into the mixing bowl. Mix on slow speed until just combined. Turn out the mixture onto a clean surface. Press the crumbly looking dough together with your hands until it just holds together.
Press the dough onto a 12 x 16-inch piece of parchment paper. Shape the dough into a rectangle and cover it with another 12 x 16-inch piece of parchment. Roll the dough out very thin by rolling from the middle of the paper outward. If the dough is difficult to roll, add a tiny bit of flour between the parchment and the dough on both sides. Transfer the dough onto a baking sheet, patching it to make an exact rectangle.
Bake the dough until the top is golden brown, slightly blistered, and dry-looking, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Use an angel food cake cutter or a fork to mark rows of holes, 1/4 inch apart, all over the dough.
Trim the rough outside edges and cut the dough into 14 to 16 squares, about 3 inches each. Use a ruler to make straight cuts and work quickly -- the crackers become difficult to cut when they cool. Bake until the cut crackers are a deep golden brown, another 2 to 4 minutes (they will burn quickly, so take care at this stage). Cool them and store them in an airtight container.
Make marshmallows
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla and incorporate into mixture. Scrape into a 9 x 9-inch pan lined with oiled plastic wrap and spread evenly. (Note: Lightly oil hands and spatula or bowl scraper). After pouring marshmallow mixture into the pan, take another piece of plastic wrap and press mixture into the pan.
Let mixture sit for a few hours. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners' sugar and cut into 12 equal pieces with scissors (the best tool for the job) or a chef's knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners' sugar. Broil the marshmallows until brown, or toast over campfire or hot coals.
Assemble
Place a cooked marshmallow on top of a graham cracker. Top the marshmallow with shaved bittersweet or milk chocolate and place another graham cracker on top of the marshmallow to make a sandwich. Garnish the sandwich and plate with a bit more shaved chocolate.
Makes 6 servings.
...but from the description I get this mental image of a plastic molecule in tiny overalls driving a tractor. Nanotech is so cute!
If these things can be tuned to specific frequencies as was suggested, I would think this would have some fun oplications in digital photography miniaturization or transplant retinas or something like that.
- learn mathematics - shoot dope -
Like shockabsorbers for nanocars.
Retractable ball-point nanopens.
And perhaps the best, what rolls down nanostairs, alone or in pairs, the nanoslinky.
Got a good recipe for chicken cordon bleu?
Okay, so now we got the motors, the gears. Now all we need are the wheels, a good nanostereo system and GM can sell cars to bacteria.
These things are all very interesting, but has anyone managed to do anything of use with them?
IANAL, but I've seen actors play them on TV
It seems to me that it's not really energy power that creates mechanical energy as in "energy conversion" but rather that light energy triggers something in the molecule.
One specific frequency makes it contract, another one makes it expand itself, behaving then much like a spring and possibly moving a weight or bending a board.
the article is light on details (no pun intended), but I don't feel the light energy, related to its frequency has much to do with the released, or activated mechanical energy, and it seems to me that in fact bending the board might represent more work from the molecule than what the activating light is providing, so I think some energy could be leaked from the molecule itself.
Besides, the article says near the end that the molecule breaks after being used a whole day so that tere is work to be done, which makes me feel that indeed, some energy might be taken from the very molecule to achieve the "spring effect".
But then, what work could they actually do against that ? the destruction of the structure is bound to happen unless the pure photonic energy is used in the experiment (but then, why would it break in the first place, and how would that work ?)
Any chemist or physicist to correct me or explain me how this is working ?
*Yawn*. Next, after the commercial break:
-Scientists use magnetism to do stuff
-Scientists use gravity to linearly accelerate falling objects
-Scientists harness laws of physics in a creative fashion
- undoware.ca
power of light to create mechanical energy
Isn't it like solar car racing...on a really small scale? Eh? Something like this?
Hooray Beer!!!
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
"I wouldn't want little nano robots being controled by some 12 year old script kitty"
I agree completely.
wait this is the first time we've harnesed the power of light? wish people would think before they let their fingers hammer out some inane bullshit.
So if they get the diving board to move a filter that switches between the two wavelengths, they can make the nanospring flex cyclically?
Boingy boingy boingy
You know...I think it will look a lot like Linux.
Lots of little units all working together. Reminds me of the daemons of the Linux OS, or the good people who volunteer on OSS projects.
Everything is getting smaller, and that's the way I like it.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
And hamsters?!
And Fish?!
And female zebras in heat?!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
By shining one frequency of light on the device, the team was able to crimp the molecule, causing it to pull the diving board downward - converting light into mechanical energy. When another light frequency was used, the molecule relaxed.
Not quite sure, but if the molecule stays in the kinked or relaxed state absent all light, could they not mount little mirrors on top that would swivel and then use this tech as a massive, persistent, extremely fast, storage mechanism? Sort of like a re-writeable CD but in solid state?
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
Thanks recipe troll.
That recipe sounds yummy, I'd like to try it.
But, my guests would be put off by the blodd all over the place right now, so I'll have to try this some other time.
I'm not feeling too good right now, I think I'll sit down for a moment.
Behold: the power of cheese.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
This isn't exactly new...
This seems to be an application of "optical tweezers". The use of electromagnetic field gradients of a focused spot has been used to uncoil as well as determine the "spring constant" (tension) of single DNA strands.The technique has been fairly common for the past 5 years. All they have done here is attach a large molecule to a diving board. The DNA experiments have already demonstrated "simple machines", although in that case the DNA is the spring.
DNA molecules grafted on silicon with optical tweezers
Femtonewton Force Spectroscopy of Single Extended DNA Molecules
Now, shine a light through the transparent surface. The brighter the light, the more the mirror bends.
You can use this two ways
-
Project an image through the transparent bottom
layer. The projected image
will be reproduced by the reflected light
off the mirrored top. Its an image amplifier.
Something like those TI (?) chips they use
in video projectors, only it amplifies light directly.
-
Suitably adjust the light intensity
through the transparent layer, and you have
dynamically controlled mirror optics.
Just thought I'd share that.And plants have been doing it for millennia...
... the heck did they attach the molecule? Molecular glue? A _very_ small nail? Those tiny moving things scare me.
Quod in aeternum cubet mortuum non est,
Et saeculis miris actis etiam Mors perierit
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question239.htm
It spins around being only powered by light (well heat from light)
Maybe I'll be looking into that Russian space shuttle for sale afterall. Wonder if I could get some Tang and space rations as an upgrade...
I would expect that at that scale, the electrostatic attraction of even a single-electron imbalance would be stronger than gravity, and keep the balls from rolling or sliding.
if you can "twist" these into a "rope", or some kind of macrosubstance that will contract when you shine light on it of a particular frequency.
It might give us a way to transmit energy over distances - shine a laser on a bank of these things to generate mechanical energy, which then drives a dynamo.
Probably wouldn't be particularly efficient, though.
Long ago, in our terms, like 50 years, people could barely conceive nanotechnology.
Now look at this..
Nanotech has emerged in everyday surroundings: the newest sub-micron chip-lithography's smallest elements exist on the nanotech scale.
Now we have pioneers. Like these scientists who have harnessed the power of light in a controllable way, on a very small scale.
Can you conceive, perceive, or believe what this implies?
Just try getting past the first part.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Laser tweezers
, of course, it begs the question as to whether the machine is minaturised is the power source is macroscopic.
I wonder, if you just let ordinary white light fall on the molecule, does it keep on bouncing wildly as it gets hit by different photons of the frequencies of light that it is sensitive to?