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Nanotech Motors, Biotransistors, DNA Fractals
FleaPlus writes "The American Institute of Physics has a news bulletin describing a couple of interesting nanotech advances. The first is the smallest electric motor in the world, made by Alex Zettl's group at UC Berkeley. The second is a single-protein wet biotransistor. Additionally, Technology Research News reports on algorithmic self-assembly of DNA Sierpinski triangles, by Erik Winfree's group at Caltech."
Take it easy on those Berkley servers. Coral Cache:
Computer-generated movie shows an artist's conception of the operation of the relaxation oscillator, and a possible application. Created by Kenny Jensen
TEM video data showing an operating relaxation oscillator, with explanatory text overlaid.
Are sooo March 2005. Wake me up when they develop a single protein dry biotransistor.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Could someone give me a quick summary of all this?
Smallest electric motor is self-explanatory, but... Self assembling DNA... What's that all about?
Wasn't there an article about mini-turbines also, that researchers were planning on using to power small devices, I'm wondering if these nano-motors could be used in the same regard.
Maybe I should go RTFA now.
for those of us who aren't fond of arcane geometrical shapes (or Google, for that matter)
So how fast can this biotransistor oscillate?
BOOOOORING let me know when they develop a fully functing nano sized Flux Capacitor so i can put it in my watch and make it run Linux so that when ever i miss something good i can just rewind it.
The first is the smallest electric motor in the world, made by Alex Zettl's group at UC Berkeley. Eventually, this will go into the world's smallest electric planer, which will be used, in part, to create the world's smallest violin. Tragically, this wonder of design will be crushed between the fingers of Steve Buscemi.
Okay, I'm not a scientist, but why would you want a *smaller* vibrating dildo?
nano contact lenses that enable me to see through clothes!!! now that would be an interesting nanotech advance.
var sig = function() { sig(); }
Slashdot is sounding more and more like those search engine spamming sites. But instead of search engines, it's the drooling readers that slashdot is trying to entice with things that aren't really news and aren't really a big deal.
I am not sure if I understand the power density claims. Here is a simple calculation. 20 microwatts in cube of 200nm x 200nm x 200nm will be 20 microwatts in 8 x 10^(-15) cm^3 volume. That will be a power density of 2.5 x 10^9 Watts/cm^3.
Sun's fusion power density is only ~ 2.5x10^(-4) Watts/cm^3 with core temperature around 15.7 x 10^6 K. I can understand that we wouldn't be generating the heat at peak density, but if we generate that high power desnity in nanomechanical system for even any reasonable time - wouldn't it just evaporate unless we find a very fast way of removing the power efficiently ?
Nanotechnology has gotten a reputation for being a flaky area of research. Part of the problem is that the word "nanotech" sounds cool, so people tend to use it without defining what they mean. Eric Drexler originally defined it in terms of machines that worked at the molecular level, i.e., on scales of a few nanometers. The problem is that there are fundamental reasons why it's extremely difficult to construct machines on that scale, and in the 20 years since he published Engines of Creation, basically nothing has happened to realize his original vision. Meanwhile, people have been making smaller and smaller machines via techniques that would never be able to scale down to the scales Drexler had in mind. The wikipedia article distinguishes between "nanotechnology" and "molecular nanotechnology." The Berkeley group's motor, for instance, is clearly on a scale (hundreds of nm) that is not molecular nanotechnology.
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Well what else would you call self assembling organic matter? Of course, considering that the average person does this millions fo times per day, it's not exactly something to boast about. I fact I'm doing it right now - the difference is that I'm not putting out a press release.
362 is enough to penetrate 30 meters of copper. Why not mount this thing on top of a large mountain and snipe some terrorists from 480 miles?
Because terrorists aren't in the habit of carrying around 30 metres of copper?
At first, I thought the DNA assembly-Sierpinski Triangle story was particularly interesting, as a link between real world information storage and the usually unworldly area of fractal geometry. On following the story, it turns out that the error rate is simply enormous (1 to 10%). DNA, in normal use, works about a billion times more reliably than it does here.
You could probably coax DNA to assemble into face centered cubic crystals with a much lower error rate than that. Hell, you might be able to get little figures of Snoopy and Garfield more reliably than these Sierpinski Triangles. This is like proving you could workably rebuild the Golden Gate bridge from Mayonaise and save the tax-payers a fortune, for sufficiently low values of "workable","fortune", and probably "Mayo".
Who is John Cabal?
Surely hope Apple are going into the nano buisiness and making a Mac nano. hehe..
Bits of News Giving you the latest bits.
The question is will we get to the point where our brains just can't take it? Will we have to pass such things onto computers, or find a way to enhance our brains to cope with it?
See, I take the opposite view on this. I feel that technology is actually making life a lot easier for our brains. Perhaps not for all of us, but take an average person. You can effectively run much of your life on autopilot. Driving a car, following mindless rules, technology providing cues and such. Really, many of the things that used to occupy time can now be done through automation - or at least are 'outsourced'. I'm of course looking at the middle-class of North America, but still. I think its hard to make a case that the average citizen is overworked and having trouble coping with technology.
Certainly there are cases of people feeling overwhelmed, but I think they are a minority - vocal, perhaps - but still a minority.
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
The late 1800's and early 1900's saw much more radical change than we experience. Electricity, Sanitation, Railroads, Cars, Airplanes, Telephones, Iron Steam Ships, Antibiotics, Physics and Math Revolutions (Relativity, QM), etc. Life when from Medivial to Modern in something like 50 years.
What we experience is trivial in comparison.
Of course if those cheap nano-assemblers appear than I will take it all back.
SICK FUCKING BASTARD!
DONT click on that link is fucking shit porn!
tetwalker
Except its just (nanoscale) DNA molecules, no brains, no eyes, nothing. Its also like a snowflake, in a way.
I also wonder why I bother replying since you won't come back to your post anyway. Mr. A. Coward.I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
It is I suppose some kind of audio-vibratory-physio-molecular transport device?
Ned Seeman's NYU lab produced algorithmic self-assembling Wang tiles for cumulative XOR computation a couple of years ago. The application was inspired by suggestions by Winfree that their then-current system, could accomplish the computation. And it has. Glad to see Winfree continuing to explore this cutting edge.
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make install -not war
...but can it run Linux??
Move Sig, for great justice.
You might disagree with how he said it, but he made a valid point...
Guess I should have staid in microbiology instead of going to Art School. I did these Sierpinski sieve based pieces way back then.
Glad to see someone doing something a little more significant with the idea.
brain.... ...hurts...
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Is that Holy Grail translated to Latin?
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
I believe this level of technology will lead to such devices as the Supository phone. A small 'contact pill' like devices that when lodged in the anal cavity will permanently lock itself to your tail bone and use your bone network to transmit sound to your ear drumbs and pick up your voice from the same. To dial up a number you would simply call out the command into thin air. YOu would hear the computer ask you if you wanted to dial this person or what not. YOU could adjust the settings to vibrate for quit opperation. The phone would get power from your movenments that would cause a tiny magneto to charge the internal lithium cells. YOU would program it using a blue tooth tranciever installed in your pc or by voice command. One step closer to being borgafied. A blue too suppository phone may be quit the thing. LoL Btw guys this is a device in one of my comical scifi stories- NO STealing!...
First post!! I work in a nanotechnology department in England, studying for a PhD. Im pleased to tell you I once used or SEM to draw a tiny micormeter sized phallus on a wafer, complete with testicles and hair. Ill dig out the picture if I can find it.