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Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire

Posted by timothy on from the soon-will-be-in-vending-machines-for-a-nickel dept.

geekman writes "NASA is paying Rice University $11 million to build a prototype quantum wire that can conduct electricity 10 times better than traditional copper cables at one-sixth the weight. Rice has four years to build a one-meter-long quantum wire, which will be made out of carbon nanotubes. Seems like a lot of money for a little wire, but then again, all the rocket scientists at Los Alamos have only ever been able to put together a four-centimeter nanotube."

22 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. The unfortunate thing about quantum wires... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is that they never seem to be where you left them. Although on a good day you'll end up with more than you started with depending on what universe you're in.

    1. Re:The unfortunate thing about quantum wires... by smokeslikeapoet · · Score: 3, Funny

      One thing's for sure, you know exactly where it is not.

  2. Seems like a lot of money for a little wire, by scottv67 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seems like a lot of money for a little wire,

    Yeah, but it's still cheaper than Monster Cable.

    ;^)

  3. How long... by Evanisincontrol · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long until some eccentric billionaire pays Rice to wire his entire house with that stuff?

    "My house is iced out with quantam wiring, biatch. Or something. Bling bling."

    1. Re:How long... by nebaz · · Score: 4, Funny

      So if you use twisted pair quantum wiring for broadband, and setup vpn, would that be quantum tunneling? (Sorry) :-)

      --
      Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
    2. Re:How long... by Dr.+GeneMachine · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wouldn't that give problems with latency and response times? I mean, let's say, you do a ping. It gives you the round-trip time. Now you know how fast your packet is - which means you do not know any longer where it is. Would that be a dropped packet? How are you supposed to ping on your quantum tunneling thingmabob anyway??
      Ah, newfangled codswallop! When we were young, we pushed carts full of punched cards from the terminal to the mainframe and back! Uphill both ways!! And we liked it!!!

      --
      This comment does not exist.
    3. Re:How long... by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

      " (yup that joke's as bad as I thought)."

      Grrr that's because you changed the punchline by observing it!

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    4. Re:How long... by SamBeckett · · Score: 2, Funny

      Leave me out of this.

  4. Will no one think of the birdies by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Funny

    how are they supposed to land on quantum power lines!!

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  5. Thank god for Condi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Condi Rice can build anything, she is one of the jewels in Bush's hat.

    Don't tell me you didn't misread the title at first either!

  6. I don't know.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Would it still be a meter after I observed it?

  7. uh oh by fred+fleenblat · · Score: 5, Funny

    carbon nanotubes...that's awfully similar to the Inanimate Carbon Rod.

  8. Get it right by Tiger4 · · Score: 5, Funny
    " all the rocket scientists at Los Alamos have only ever been able to put together a four-centimeter nanotube."

    They're nuclear scientists, not rocket scientists, dammit. Give'em a break!

    --
    Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
  9. actually I didn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    But then again, that's because the title didn't involve any outlandish or false claims against anybody.

  10. Rice contracted WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Crap...
    I thought NASA had contracted Condolezza Rice to build a quantum wire for a top secret mission or something like that...

  11. A problem of scale... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Funny



    Let's just hope the kids at Rice don't get confused and wind up making a ridiculously large model of a quantum wire instead. :P

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  12. Sheesh, shoulda looked in Audiophile by SteeldrivingJon · · Score: 3, Funny


    I'm sure there's some outfit in Audiophile magazine that will sell you "quantum wire".

    I hear it gives you really crisp trebles.

    --
    September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
  13. Re:The real question is.. by Masami+Eiri · · Score: 1, Funny

    They strangle the cat... maybe. Or maybe the cat knits them into a gas mask to protect him against the gas. Or maybe the gas reacts with them and creates a quantumn explosion...
    Damn you Schrodinger!

  14. Re:Space elevator just a few months away! by HermanAB · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually, it is easy to get into space. You just need to stand still and let the earth move away from you.

    --
    Oh well, what the hell...
  15. Re:More poorly spent money... by mattmatt · · Score: 3, Funny

    (the capped ends are two halves of a fullerene, iirc)

    Halferenes?

  16. even BETTER by hoyboy9 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm a current Rice student, and one of the running jokes about all this nanotech stuff here on campus came from our student newspaper writers. Take two bucky balls, and one long nanotube, and fuse them together with a few bonds and you get: PHUCTANE All the students in orgo were completely phuc'ed after that.

  17. This is NASA, of course they care about WEIGHT... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You know, NASA? The organization that shoots things into SPACE?

    But seriously, there are lots of useful applications for this where using superconducting materials instead would be inconvenient.