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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."
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
Physicists get Hadrons!
last I heard, MIT was working on something like this. Just a rumor - can anyone verify?
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We are the collective Slashbot HiveMind
Roland Piquepaille is a blogspammer, every day for over a week now, we've had his rehashings of old stories posted on the frontpage. Don't click on the first and the last link in the story.
I haven't RTFA, but ceramics are already used in certain motorcycle engines.
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.
I used to have self assembling lego/mechano structures, thanks to my father's need to 'help' me whenever I got a new set.
I post that and read slashdot? Fucking asshat.
Another Slashdot story that is going to change my life. Why is it after 3 years I'm still doing the same stinking job, same stinking money eh?
/. to change your life? The .com boom is over, get over it. Find a job you enjoy, or one you can stand. Then, to enjoy yourself, get a life. It's amazing how unimportant work is once you have a kid.
Maybe because you expect
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Hmmm, isn't this just what we need to make space elevators possible?
These things are "self-assembling"!! Doesn't this just scare the hell out of you?!?!
How long will it be before these 3D nanostructures figure out they no long need Mankind to survive...and see us as a threat!?!?
I for one will welcome our new Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures Overlords!
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Google cache
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...
This isn't redundant man...don't you GET IT?
Listen. And understand. Those Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures are out there. They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, EVER, until we are dead!
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
The space elivator project needs materials strong enough to with stand the tension of its own weight, and we already have carbon nano fibers that provide 60-70% of the strength needed to make it a reality. If this new technique can get us to the magic strength, we are probably in the threashhold of a new era.
~561
At the moment, "self assembling" means that we don't have to push the nanodots together after we make them. That's all. You still need to ablate a carefully prepared target with a laser to etch the structures we want.
Personally, I'm excited about their solid state lighting idea.
from the article The most interesting application may be the development of energy-efficient, low-cost, solid-state lighting. By creating a matrix of layers of varying sizes of nanodots embedded in a transparent medium such as aluminum oxide, Narayan can create a chip that glows with white light. Solid-state lighting would use about one-fifth the energy of standard fluorescent lighting and last for approximately 50 years.
Looks like my LCD monitor is about to become obsolete: there's no reason why these solid state can't be made the size of a pixel and tied to active matrix display electronics. Maybe the us military might be able to replace their $30,000+ individual soldier helmet monocles which are currently using 5000 hour MTBF organic led technology with durable, bright and efficient nano-leds and save taxpayer money while we're at it.
> 'chip-light using' one-fifth the energy of standard fluorescent lighting and last for approximately 50 years
Well that puts LCD back in the race against the upcoming OLED technology. If they can further reduce bad pixels and failure it may be more environmentally friendly than OLED which may have a shorter life span. The energy used by the backlight was LCDs culprit, with that solved LCD may become our long lasting friend.
OLED pushers better speed their cheap display printing tech to market before we expect displays to last 40 years.
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Dennis SCP
Isn't bits generally used for data transfer, rather than storage, which is generally bytes?
Not quite so simple.
Bits is generally used for the raw basic capability. No provisions for framing, error detection or correction.
Bytes are generally used for 8 bits of usable information. This is measured after the framing, error detection/correction etc.
Bandwidth caps are related to data transfer, but probably expressed in bytes instead of bits.
Memory chip capacity probably expressed in bits. Memory stick capacity probably expressed in bytes, and usually be less than the corresponding number of bits in the chips.
Disk capacity probably expressed in bytes, but there is a significant difference between raw unformatted capacity and the formatted capacity. The difference is furthered by reserving alternate sectors so the disk behaves as if it were error free.
Too lazy to create a sig...
I had known this for months.
If you really want to be up to date in nano, check out news.nanoapex.com.
Every day there's a new discovery.
They have vaccuum inside, and they're diamond, so they're strong enough to handle the pressure. So, they end up being diamonds that float in our atmosphere.
You'd probably need a good few layers of carbon atoms to make sure no oxygen, nitrogen or even hydrogen atoms sneaked in. Not forgetting the byproducts of cosmic rays. My guess is that the total mass of the casing / volume would exceed the density of the surrounding air.
Buckminster Fuller has a similar idea, but on a much grander scale. He figured you could could create floating cities from ordinary steel. If you could imagine a geodesic polyhedron 2 miles in radius with steel pipes 2-3 metres in radius for the edges, the force exerted by raising the air temperature inside the pipes by just a couple of degrees would be enough to make the structure float in the air.
The closest real-world implementation at present is a nyoln fibre airship, with helium gas for lift. Roughly, you get 1 Kg of lift for every cubic metre of Helium. For a 6x2 metre airship with 25 cubic metres, the weight of the skin is around 8 Kg, when inflated, and 25kg of lifting weight.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads