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The Nanotech Nose: Towards A Smaller Future

Posted by michael on from the bigger-and-better dept.

Farrax writes "One of the first steps to nanotechnology, either strong or weak, is the ability to even talk about materials on this scale with precision. Thursday, with the successful test of a nano-tech "nose," that step was achieved: weight fluctuations of 5.5 femtograms were detected on a bar of gold. The dream of nano-technology moves forward: maybe we'll see it by 2020 after all."

1 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. how small is too small? by maliabu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    i wonder if things will eventually reach a point where it's no longer beneficial to get any smaller?

    for instance, mobile phones nowadays are a great improvement from a 1-foot long cellphone our grandparents used, but if things get too small for human-beings to use it properly, then we won't use it.

    so with all these nano techonologies going on, even if we can build all the components for a mobile phone so small, don't we still need something reasonable sized to use it?