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Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire
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."
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.
Seems like a lot of money for a little wire,
;^)
Yeah, but it's still cheaper than Monster Cable.
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."
NASA is paying Rice University $11 million
Rice has four years to build a one-meter-long quantum wire,
Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to put out a bounty on this wire? Instead of the four year plan, you get the "everyone scrambling to complete it first" plan, and as a bonus, even when someone collects the bounty, all the research done by other institutions still stands.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
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
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!
Are nanotubes really quantum? They're very small, but I don't think they're actually at the quantum level of physics.
"For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
Would it still be a meter after I observed it?
carbon nanotubes...that's awfully similar to the Inanimate Carbon Rod.
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.
I believe this refers to the ballistic conduction that takes place in carbon nano-tubes and is a quantum phenomenon. Basically electrons experience a small resistance entering and leaving a nano-tube, but then near zero resistance travelling along them.
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But then again, that's because the title didn't involve any outlandish or false claims against anybody.
Crap...
I thought NASA had contracted Condolezza Rice to build a quantum wire for a top secret mission or something like that...
For those who didn't read the past article on quantum wires, here it is.
And for those who don't know what an armchair nanotube is, here are some images (The armchair nanotube is the one in the middle).
These things could be the next revolution after fiber optics for network communication, so there is reason to be excited. I wonder if there would be too much interference to run these things in a twisted pair configuration.
I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
-- W.C. Fields
I'm sitting about three blocks from the Rice Campus & I'm a Rice grad, so pardon me for cheering 'em on.
This actually makes (some) sense - Dick Smalley & Robert Curl on the Rice faculty (and a 3rd guy in England) won that trivial little prize - the Nobel in Chemistry for basically inventing/discovering the buckyball and related carbon nano stuff - or something like that. I also seem to recall that Smalley also has done pretty well in acually being able to manufacture buckyballs.
Also, there is a long history of collaberation between NASA and Rice. Starting before the Apollo program. I had a professor at Rice who designed experiment packages that went to the moon in the Apollo program.
So, if NASA was going to award a contract or grant to somebody for this, Rice does make some sense.
Also, kind of interesting that President Kennedy gave the famous speech "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." on the Rice campus.
Carbon nanotubules, when properly, manufactured could also have very high tensile strength. Many times stronger than stranded steel cable and weighing less as well. This is the technology people what it use to build the space elevator.
Of course, after proof of concept there are still many challenges to cost effective manufacturing.
There are a dozen revolutionary uses for super wires. But first we need a proof of concept. FYI - I'm looking for a job at a well-funded nanotech startup. Many qualificiations, inquire within!
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.
____
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I'm sure there's some outfit in Audiophile magazine that will sell you "quantum wire".
I hear it gives you really crisp trebles.
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isn't rice too big for quantum wires? and last time I checked it wasn't that expensive to buy rice. NASAs budget is kinda funky.
You have been warned.
If NASA is throwing $11 million behind this project, is it safe to assume it'll be around before the end of the century? How soon can we expect it to be implemented more practically, such as making spacecraft lighter and increasing the speed of computers, as the linked article suggests?
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!
I'm a bit surprised that NASA didn't ask Zyvex to work on this for them... I have friends who work there, and they do some really neat stuff. (Including working on those crazy quantum nano-tubes).
Contrary to popular belief, their office is actually quite large.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
My basic reaction is that superconducting approaches make much more sense. Weight is pretty much not a factor for normal usages. When the quantity of electricity involved is large enough that the weight does become a factor, then you're probably thinking of power transmission lines, and in that scenario you can consider the tradeoff for seriously large amounts of power. I can imagine a small refrigerated tunnel containing a high-temperature ceramic semiconductor and carrying extremely large amounts of electricity with very little lossage. I don't have the numbers at hand, but I feel like this approach is already pretty close to economic viability. (But maybe that's why they don't feel the need to put any additional government money behind it?)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
...in that I'm always picking on a buddy who works for LANL.
Now I can say (already have actually):
"you're a few nanotubes short of a meter!"
FLR
I wonder if there might be any help to be had with the seeding or growing process using properties involving electrical charge, magnetic fields, or some combination of the two to assist with selection and alignment...
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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...
Lemme see $11M/m x 15000km x 50 strands... Vokkov Bill Gates go stand in the poor people's line.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
You could use such a wire to suspend a system of plates that would counter-revolve within your gigantic ring-shaped world to provide changing day and night zones.
A small ball on the tip of a strand repelled with a magnetic field would make a great sword/cutting tool.
Warnings for experimenters: Don't try to pick them up with your bare hands and watch out for sunflowers.
As far as I know conductivty is a function of the cross section of a wire, which scales linearly with weight.
So 10 times better at 1/6th the weight should be the same as 60 time better as copper, or that it conducts the same as copper but at 1/60th the weight. Or 20 times better at 1/3rd the weight. Who's deciding this? I feel like I'm reading an article on futuristic wiring technology, but can't be trusted to deal with any number or fraction that involves a number larger than 10. Fuckers.
Jherico
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... and the cat gets stuck bouncing through time in other people's bodies, until it finally lands a dreary part in a sad series based on a humdrum spinoff premise?
With a horrible theme song that sounds like someone strangling Scott Bakula?
It's Backwards Universe! Where all cats are Scott Backula, and all Jonathan Archers are Cats!
All your base are belong to us.
Seems like a lot of money for a little wire
:-)
You've obviously never priced oscilloscope probe wires before.
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If you can get a charge running forever around a ring of quantum wire, could this mean room temperature 10T magnets?
No more liquid helium!
Or is there something I'm missing here?
I think that this type of research would be better funded through the Department of Energy or the National Science Foundation or DARPA. Certainly quantum wire would be useful in construction of spacecraft, but I think NASA should be focused more on space exploration. In other words, building spacecraft with existing technologies or tech that is likely to be feasible in the near term.
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
So what happens if they fail to make it? Do they give the money back? Are they brought before Lord Vader? -- IV
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it's right here:
- see it?
You can't handle the truth.
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.
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.
Hell, even the theory of how they conduct electricity is younger that superconductors, and just see how many of those we have around.
Hell, even the theory of how they conduct electricity is younger that superconductors, and just see how many of those we have around.
As an aside, superconductivity is now very well understood. It's just that the race for a room-temperature superconductor has stalled out. In those fields where they can afford to keep the superconductors below critical temperature (e.g. NMR/MRI machines), superconductors are very widely used.
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still relative to what may I ask? :-P
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"all the rocket scientists at Los Alamos have only ever been able to put together a four-centimeter nanotube"
They were distracted looking for smilar lines of code in Linux and SCO Unix!
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Bill Gates will have his heated driveway recabled with this stuff.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
So let me get this right..it goes from God, to NASA, to Rice, to nanotubes?
And the weight of copper is rarely a problem.
Sorry to bring facts into this...
if you've taken to measuring in nanometres, you *may* want to check out one of those "enlarge your penis offers" we keep receiving in the mail. if you haven't seen it (the email, that is), message me and i'll send you a link.
not that you have a problem, or anything.
---- I was woken up this morning by a face full of fur. Damn cat thought my head made a good pillow.
The best part of this news is that, someday, kids will pull these wires out of their toys. I can almost see them ridiculing teachers who claim that, a long time ago, some of the top organisations on the planet took years and millions to build just one of these.
Hey everyone, let's tease him!
Admit it, (to ring around the rosey) you haaave Rice envy! (everyone join in, repeat 3 times then laugh). Watch him get red.
Has anyone else here noticed if her shoes match? I couldn't tell you. Sounds like you watch her a lot. Most people only notice things like that if they are really attracted to them. Were you watching Colon Powell or Madiline Albright like this too?
Go ahead, blow up with a nasty response or mod me down, it will only serve to confirm it more. Bla ha ha ha hah
Hey, you deserved this. Stick to the subject next time instead of a political propaganda piece. There will be opportunities for that later.
As an aside, superconductivity is now very well understood.
Not according to the April 2005 issue of Scientific American. In an article entitled Low-Temperature Superconductivity Is Warming Up, it says that magnesium diboride defies traditional theories about superconductivity. From reading the article, it seems that superconductivity isn't really well understood at all.
If Rice suceeds at building this wire then it could revolutionize computers and other electronic devices as we know it today. We have just about pushed copper to it's limits as far as capabilities of sending electrical signals through it. Imagine integrated circuit boards being built with quantum wire instead of copper. We could get 30Ghz PC's instead of 3Ghz PC's. This could possibly the next big step in building electronics.
And the weight of copper is rarely a problem.
Unless you're sending stuff into space.
I can't think of anyone who might want to do that offhand but... wait, who was funding that again?
Sorry to bring the full set of facts into this.
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That's funny; when I read it, I was picturing a "Rice Rocket". Except a literal rocket, overdone in the same way Rice Rockets are concerning cars. You know, a couple oversized "Type-R" stickers plastered on it, half a dozen jumbo fog lights, a set of delta-wings tacked on for no good reason, etc ;)
Are there any deer in the theater tonight? Get 'em up against the wall.
Ok, I'll bite. Can you show us? You see, there is this pesky force called Gravity. I realize it is a "weak" force but I can't seem to defeat it. Now, give me another slice of Pizza while I watch your demo.
Just gimme a space anchor...
Oh well, what the hell...
I think you've made a very good point here. Moores Law is not about increase in size, it is really about decreasing the size of the transistors. The first transistors were huge things and it's all about preserving the physics while making things smaller.
This is a fundamentally different thing to using Moores Law as a prediction on scaling up something that only happens on a very small scale (eg. nano tubes or fusion or whatever).
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Is that sort of like a sky hook?
In space the problem is not a lack of propulsion. The problem is a lack of brakes. If you can figure out how to stop, then you don't need propulsion - you just wait for the place you want to go to, to come to you.
In Star Trek, space is sticky. When a spacecraft shuts its engines down, it comes to a stop. If that was true, then space flight would be very easy, since everything is moving at enormous speeds, so if you want to go somewhere, just stop at the right moment and wait a while.
Oh well, what the hell...
Here is an interesting thought for you along the lines of what you said about engines shutting down and the spacecraft coming to a stop relative to where they are. Say your in a spacecraft and you keep adding speed via rocket or something. How come you never make it to the speed of light? There is nothing to stop you, you are adding an action, so how come you don't hit C or beyond? If you are moving faster than the speed of light (theoretically possible), can you slow down to slower the speed of light? Here is another one - say you have two blades, they are say 1000 miles long and absolutely strait on the edge. If you put them at a fraction of an angle and close the space, you get a shearing edge. Since theoretically the blades themselves can't exceed the speed of light, what about the shearing point (think of scissors)? It would have to exceed the speed of light. That is because you can set the shearing point to be say y=2x or more. X is the speed of the blades coming together and y = the shearing point.
Now getting back to your premise, you can't just hang out in space. Gravity from something (a really big something like a planet or star) will attract you and you will start to move towards it. You also can't expect something to come to you. For example the 3rd star in Orion's belt will never come to you here where the earth is now. You must go to it if you want to get there.
"Say your in a spacecraft and you keep adding speed via rocket or something. How come you never make it to the speed of light? "
Your mass keeps increasing as your speed increases, because your kinetic energy increases and e=mc^2.
"There is nothing to stop you, you are adding an action, so how come you don't hit C or beyond?"
Your mass goes to infinity - that'll keep you.
"If you are moving faster than the speed of light (theoretically possible)"
No it isn't, see above.
"the shearing point (think of scissors)? It would have to exceed the speed of light."
That point is not the movement of matter, it is the intersection between two pieces of matter.
"the 3rd star in Orion's belt will never come to you here where the earth is now."
Yup, you'll have to do some flying, to get to a point where it will come to you. By 'standing still' you can go somewhere, but it will be hard to come back.
Cheers,
H.
Oh well, what the hell...
Where does the extra mass come from as you keep accelerating? I thought you would argue that it wouldn't be possible to get to the speed of light because you wouldn't have enough stuff to eject to do it. But hey, if you have more mass to throw away... problem solved. Speed of light, here I come. By the way it is theoretically possible if you look at the equations. That is a common trick question used in Physics 101 (where it was asked to me). If you are going faster than the speed of light you can't go slower than the speed of light. There are examples of particles like this but I can't seem to remember their name right now. Has to do with particles from a supernovae (confirmed way after I was in college, in 1994 I believe). There is also that freezing of light as reported on slashdot recently. I still don't buy that one.
There is also the problem of not colliding with something while going that fast. Find out where a spacecraft is going near the speed of light or even 1/2 the speed of light and leave a 10 Lb ACME anvil in the way.