Slashdot Mirror
Clocking the Movements of Atoms
Roland Piquepaille writes "With special microscopes, scientists and engineers involved in nanotechnologies have been able to 'see' atoms for a while. But they couldn't clock the atomic response to events which typically occur in nanoseconds. Now, U.S. physicists have found a way to clock the movements of atoms at the nanometer scale. In their experiments, they were able to literally watch atoms switching positions in ferroelectric materials. Adding the dimension of time to the observation of the nanoworld could lead to easier developments of 'materials for improved memory applications in microelectronics.'"
"In their experiments, they were able to literally watch atoms switching positions in ferroelectric materials."
I'd have just unplugged all the atoms, and when plugged in again, they'd all start counting from 12:00
Oh You POS
I guess they'll finally be able to see the microscopic chance of the average Slashdot reader getting laid.
Now, I'm never one to complain about the decisions of /. editors (and I'm not here either), but it's pretty funny seeing this in the hardware sections.
Maybe Ars Technica will have a review later...
TFA? Yeah, it's worth reading. It's pretty cool the toys these guys (physicists in general) get to play with.
How fast is one nanometer per nanosecond, in meters per second? I don't have my calculator with me.
You're right, he fooled me, I didn't see he was joking. I just assumed he was American, or worked at NASA so he didn't know metric.
1,000,000,000/1,000,000,000 of course = 1/1 but not everyknow would know that a nanosecond is a billionth of a second.
Oh You POS
they were able to literally watch atoms switching positions in ferroelectric materials
For a second there, I assumed that they'd built a microsope that could only figuratively watch things. Good job you pointed out that it literally works!
What about overclocking those babies?! Whooo!
No longer will atoms be bogged down at the n00b 'factory-spec' speed of light.
Now to find the multiplier...
Everything I need to know about copyrights I learned from Slashdot.
This opens a new source of funding from speeding atoms:
COPper atom: Do you know how fast you were going?
Helium atom (in a high voice): Not at all, officer!
Maybe.
Wake me up when we're OVERclocking atoms.
I boiled some water yesterday.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.