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Caltech Researchers Weigh Individual Molecules
karvind writes "PhysOrg reports that physicists at the California Institute of Technology have created the first nanodevices capable of weighing individual biological molecules. This technology may lead to new forms of molecular identification that are cheaper and faster than existing methods, as well as revolutionary new instruments for proteomics. The Caltech devices are 'nanoelectromechanical resonators' -- essentially tiny tuning forks about a micron in length and a hundred or so nanometers wide that have a very specific frequency at which they vibrate when excited. Slashdot covered earlier the effort by Cornell for measuring attogram objects which also employs NEMS cantilevers."
Now we can really measure how many angels can fit together on a pinhead! More seriously, this technology opens up interesting possibilities for high-througput easy mutation screening. Base substitutions (mutations) in a given stretch of DNA will obviously alter its weight. In this way you can easily (well, relatively speaking) detect the presence of a mutation, after which you can select the stretch of DNA that the mutation is in for sequence analysis. It'd be an interesting application for us geneticists.
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
I was under the impression that at the atomic and molecular level there were quantum phenomena that caused particles to gain and lose mass depending on how they are arranged within the atom/molecule. For example, (just making something up) a molecular bond would result in the total mass of a molecule being less than the sum of the masses of its atoms.
If working with isotopes, it seems feasible to measure the mass of any particular molecule. What were the issues that were blocking this sort of measurement before?
Who will be stuck working the nano-weigh station of the future? Sounds like a crappy job with a Small paycheck.
Party at O'zorgnax's Pub! Buy me a Slurmtini aye?
In other news, these devices are being utilized in the brand new series of gas pumps designed to pump gas throughout the next century.
"We're very excited about this new technology." says an anonymous CEO of a Fortune 500 oil company.
"No longer can the customer get a free $.009 with every purchase. They'll now be billed down to the exact molecule. Its a tough measure, but those freeloaders were really putting a strain on our budgets."
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
has there been a relatively recent boom in nanotechnology?
They are all really small breakthroughs.
Slashdot, where the April Fools jokes get posted on the 3rd of April and again on the 4th.
Caltech Researchers Weigh Individual Molecules
Technology
Science
Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday April 01, @01:31AM
from the heavy-lifting dept.
Ha ha ha! I get it, I get it.
"nano" machines, "molecules" "Caltech"
You got me AGAIN! Man, CowboyNeal, you sure pulled the wool over my eyes. Ha ha ha. Whew, that was a good one.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Is that the problem with this picoscillatory nanoids is that their normal modes have a tendency to reverse the polarity of the neutron flux through the quantum mass matrix.
This has the unfortunate effect that at that point, you have little choice when determining the altoid-dense uberstate discrepancy to assume that the entire universe weighs exactly the same as Cheryl Tweedie from Girls Aloud.
Hooray for physics.
You know, I'm not going to believe one darned word posted today on Slashdot. If anybody has any news they want people to believe, post it tomorrow. Imagine what would happen if the BBC or CNN sprinkled six or seven fake stories into their broadcasts like Slashdot do every year....
Doctors and hospitals need this techology right now so they can weigh patients like Calista Flockhart.
An instrument that can now weigh my penis.
Wait. Did I say that outloud? I guess I better turn off my spam-blocker.
That, my friends who use "irony" when you mean "paradox" or just "contradictory" - that is not only real irony, it's inverted irony. Full marks.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
We know the masses of a lot of the atoms (though there's a lot more than 1000 isotopes). Molecules are a completely different matter; there's an infinite range of possible molecules, because you can put them together in a lot of different ways; chain molecules (like DNA (hey, there's 5 billion different molecules - and that's only counting humans!)) are difficult to untangle and sort out; when you can weigh them, you can use the masses of atoms to try to calculate how many of each atom is in the molecule, and from there you can try and work out which configurations of atoms are possible.
Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
...that they're naming these new units after stars of the past. After zeptograms we'll no doubt be seeing grouchofarads, chicobytes, and harpohertz.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
I'm familiar with his research, half my group collaborated with him, and I think I met him once. It's real. MEMS-based cantilever technology has been getting progressively better, this isn't particularly surprising.
I don't know why you're surprised that New Scientist is pseudoscience, but you can find similar results with real science in journals. Look up Roukes, M in "web of science" or something.
Nice troll, but I can't have you confusing the n00bs on matters scientific.