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Australian Overturns 15 Years of Nano-Science Doctrine
Roland Piquepaille writes "Dr John Sader, from the University of Melbourne, discovered a design flaw in a key component of the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). He 'used established mechanical principles to prove that the popular V-shaped cantilever inadvertently degrades the performance of the instrument, and delivers none of its intended benefits.' This finding may reshape the industry by proposing a single new standard and because the AFM 'has been the instrument of choice for three dimensional measurements at the atomic scale, since its invention in 1986.' Check this column for more details and an AFM diagram or read the original University of Melbourne's article. You also can visit the
'How AFM works' page."
In the mean time, can someone possibly provide examples of any popular theories or situations that this discovery may have thrown off? I just want something more substance than "it changed a lot".
When Wesley's nanobots attacked that scientist that was trying to kill him? Good stuff.
Alright. Can't wait to have nano bots to change my hair color!! mm
To buy a Slashdot subscription and sit here waiting for new articles to go live. I guess everyone needs a hobby though.
But if an Australian overturns something does that not mean its actually the right way up ?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
BRabo MR MAN. U got froth bost
The all-important cantilevers are placed in light contact with a sample and moved across its surface, detecting any change in surface topography. Cantilever calibration is a fundamental issue in the use of the internet.
Can someone tell me what cantilevers has to do with the internet? Was that a typo?
Mate, they stink.
Just don't make any dingo ate your baby jokes... last time I did that on Slashdot it started a whole flamewar. Oh, and don't say anything Fosters or Bloomin Onions, either. Apparently Outback Steakhouse isn't a true depiction of Australia.
What an accomplishment. It's amazing what one person can contribute to science.
Make love, not war:Anal Sex
Join the openly gay Slashdotters club!
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Ill be sending my refund form right now!
Since the Aussie police have raided all the Universities and removed MP3/DivX collections they've had to turn their attention to work.
Hope noone at my company realises this.
I don't do AFM, but my labmate has. He said that this flaw was well-known, and that most people dumped the v-shaped cantilevers in favor of nanotubes (I think) or straight cantilevers. Cool thing he said was that to get a tip, very popular was the gunk that piles up after you clean an electron microscope. One man's trash is another's treasure, I suppose.
If modern string theory is true then most nano science applications will fail to work.
Recall that standard supersymmetry work with strings in 11 space dimensions on Yang-Calbai manifolds. At sizes below 15 angstroem you'll effects from these 11 dimensions. Especially has the wave equation non-trivial, non-analytic solutions and Hygens' principle fails (due to the topology of the Yang-Calbai manifolds, recall that the 5th deRham cohomology group is non-trivial).
So you'll get the effect of string resonance - strings are coupled together the 3rd order Laplace equation which overrules strong and weak interaction. This means that control of dynamical systems below the 15 angstroem barrier is impossible - you'll always get 5th order resonance which collapses the control Lie-algebra.
So all these nifty little nano-machines won't work, they'll be just little protein blob wiggling around and doing nothing useful.
As an example see this example.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Slashdot Subscribers (You know the people who actually pay for the great service they get) get to see newsposts before they're officially "up". You should keep better track of slashdot services.
In order to resolve individual atoms you still need STM and even then obtaining good atomic resolution images requires a lot of work, luck and know-how.
All you need is a laser ,sensors, tip, tip holder(lever).
Why should these microscopes cost alot ??
*passes hand over head*
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
If this was a US scientist, what are the odds that the title of this item would have read, "American Overturns 15 Years of Nano-Science Doctrine"? -- pretty long odds, I'd say.
Stop pimping for Michael, CowboyNeal! Or do you guys just share your logins...?
One rogue subscriber can post the "newsposts" in the previous thread for everyone to see. The whole scheme is broken.
It's very intriguing that a mathematician has been able to mathematically prove that V-shaped cantilevers are worse for Atomic Force Microscopy.If the proof is so conclusive, however, it would have been nice for them to wait until they'd fabricated some straight-beam cantilever AFM tips, so that they could do a nice thorough study proving that they get better performance using them for actual data.
(It shouldn't be any more difficult, and it might be a little easier, even, to make straight beam cantilever tips than to make V-shaped ones. This is because the cantilever part of the tip is typically made by some sort of photochemical etching, and a straight beam is certainly a simpler shape to etch.)
Anyway, even with recent advancements in tip design technology atomic force microscopy is still rather inexact when it comes to getting good results consistently. As much as they try to design good tips, you'll never really know if you'll get good images from it until you mount it in the AFM and actually use it. I've certainly heard of grad students who will find a good tip (through trial and error) and become very protective of it (which is hard to do because they're extremely delicate), just because getting good results from Atomic Force Microscopy can often be tricky business, and a tip that you know is good is a great advantage.
-------------------- the list is long. dirac angestung gesept
Timesprout gets (Score:5, Funny)
Ekrout gets (Score:0, Offtopic)
Does somebody know why twist is a problem? I tried to look up the RevSciInstr article, but couldn't find it.
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
V-shaped cantilevers work fine. People can obtain atomic resolution with them. What more could you want?
I have used both straight and V-shaped. If there is a difference in performance, the difference is mostly likely very small and over-shadowed by other factors.
i just bought some hash and thought i'd write a song about it:
i got some pot in my pocket
got some dope in my daks
got some grass in my grundies
got some slate in my slacks.
thats all i can think of now. more later!!!
cya doods!!!
... an australian court went medieval on a local Copernic?
The second I read about this AFM bug, I ran down to the lab... as it turns out, I really *do* have a penis after all!
evil adrian
If only the theory formerly known as string theory were able to be tested so easily!
On the other hand, my 13 year old son practices Lie-algebra on me every day after school - maybe he's a candidate for Mensa too... ...or more likely he's a candidate for the protein blob wiggling around and doing nothing useful.
"terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
AFMs are being used to do alot more than measure nowadays. This summer I worked on Dip-Pen Nanolithography which uses an AFM like a fountian pen of sorts. It's pretty cool stuff, and if that cantilever is off (the piece which holds the "nub" of the pen) then all of the work done could be rendered incorrect... DPN Information
Maybe with better AFM designs, scientists will then be able to find George W. Bush's penis!
Then he won't feel such an obvious need to "prove" his manhood by talking macho war all the time.
It's great they're pointing out FLAWS in nanotechnology, but I wish they'd get going on more outlandish product development...like "porno star in a can", just spray it on your bed and bingo...
this is not a sig.