Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures

Roland Piquepaille writes "Chips holding 10 terabits of data? Copper as strong as steel? Ceramics tough enough to be used in car engines? All this will be true in five years, thanks to two new methods to create self-assembling 3D nanostructures. These methods used pulsed laser deposition to create layers of nanodots organized in a matrix. These arrays of nanodots are consistent in shape and size -- 7 nanometers with nickel for example. But the real beauty of these methods is that they can be applied to almost any material, like nickel for data storage or aluminum oxide for ceramics. These methods also reduce drastically imperfections, leading to future superstrong materials. Read more here for other details and an image of a single nickel nanocrystal, or nanodot."

Comments

Mithril blades

[Space cowboy]

So that's it then - the elves had nanotech. It all makes sense now. Looks like steel, feels like steel, but cuts like sinclair molecule chain :-)

I do remember the UK Science minister at the time (Lord Sainsbury, I think it was) who said "Nanotechnology is going to be really BIG". He didn't quite get it, did he... Oh well, science is anathema to most politicians in the UK :-(

Simon

But how does it kill people?

[MacFury]

I guess you could make stronger bullets...How else could it be used to kill people? I'd like to see this technology get funded.

Pffft

[frankthechicken]

I used to have self assembling lego/mechano structures, thanks to my father's need to 'help' me whenever I got a new set.

greatest invention since the lightbulb

[Jotham]

Why is it that every time I read about a scientific breakthrough, journalists always promise that it could lead to... *drumroll*... an improved lightbulb?

I wonder if Einstein had this problem.
E=mc^2... helps us understand the relationship between energy and matter... which could lead to...