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'Laser Tweezers' Used to Sort Atoms
luckyguesser writes to tell us that Physicists at the University of Bonn are claiming to have knocked down one more quantum computing hurdle. Utilizing what they term "laser tweezers" they were able to sort and align seven atoms while capturing it on film. The plan is to construct a quantum gate using atoms imprinted with data.
Does that mean SG1 will now be shown on the History Channel instead of SciFi?
Then != than you morons.
Something to get at even the most stubborn nasal hairs.
There is a bit more detail here, including a picture:
a chine-29616.shtml
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Atom-Sorting-M
Young Einstin.
...BOOM...
Now Where is that chissel?
Then Yahoo Serious (as Einstine) Runs out with Beer with bubbles in his beer, chared from the Nuclear explosion.
Which makes me wonder Could mass production of Nano Tools could lead to acedental Nuclear Explosions?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
That may very well be the world's smallest achievement.
Philosophy.
Cool, really freakin' small lightsabers.
Keep up the good work!
One more step to kissing NP Complete good bye, and one more step to invalidating all current forms of encryption. W00t W00t. I for one welcome our new Quantum Overloads (and their ESP capabilites ;))
- Kal`Goblez
Being able to sort and manipulate things down to the atomic level?
This is going to make already messy divorce proceedings... even messier.
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
have made a powerful new ally today.
Where's the video? Remember: a picture/video is worth 1000 mis-informed comments...
At last! Fricken' tweezers with fricken' laser beams attached!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
...let the small penis jokes begin!
Now if they could only make a version of them with pieces of zircon encrusted in them, I know a few people who might be interested in these tweezers.
I'm damned if I can see how this is jumping an "important" hurdle along the way to a quantum computer. I don't think anyone is going to build a quantum computer with moving parts, i.e. with laser "conveyor belts" and "tweezers" that are constantly shuffling atoms around (and at a mere 0.5 sort operations per second at that).
I'm guessing the hurdle jumped here has something to do with construction techniques. But...there are already many ways to get atoms perfectly lined up with each other. Using a crystal, or part of one, would be one rather obvious idea. Indeed, the impression that the article gives that it's somehow a triumph to get atoms "perfectly" lined up with each other is silly: atoms naturally line up "perfectly" with each other, especially metal atoms like the caesium in the article. It's quite hard to get metal atoms not to "perfectly" line up together, i.e. to make amorphous (glassy) metallic materials.
Anyway, it's a nice little bit of single-atom manipulation, yes. One more trick you can do with laser cooling and tweezers, which may be interesting from the research perspective. But I don't see how it has anything very directly to do with quantum computing.
Oh, great! Now, with this article and your comment, you've just started a whole new trend in small penis jokes!
Before anyone gets all righteous on me and mods me to death, I'm borderline OCD.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
so wheres the film?
The best test environment is production. - Me
chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
for G.W's brain cells
if you read it closely, it is not exactly the normal tweezer you and me use(not really.) its kinda like throwing an atom somewhere, instead of actually lifting it and moving somewhere. you cant guarantee that it will land at the same target all the time.
I thought I remembered reading that these quantum level gates would need to be redundant to get stable state information - something on the order of 1k quantum gates per transister based gate. If this is true, how long would it take to produce a computer? Years? Not a knock against the results - just a question.
I mean, really--is Previous position: "Maxwell's Daemon" going to impress the HR department?
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
..."Laser Tweezers used to Scott Adams". I couldn't figure out what the hell that meant. Did someone publish a holographic collection of Dilbert toons?
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
queue penis jokes.
Currently theta testing the prototype "Event Horizon" server-scaled desktop box with a 50 Gigameg of Ram.
Can I use them to pull out all the splinters I got from my nano-woodworking project?
Has anyone else noticed that the ads on the informative article page:
a chine-29616.shtml
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Atom-Sorting-M
are about industrial conveyor belts? (I got "Belt Conveyors From the Industry Leader, QC Solutions") I can certainly understand it, given that the article has the text "'conveyor belt' consisting of lasers", but it's still wrong and funny!
for at least 5 years.
i cal_Tweezers/
Granted, it seems like their tweezers might be slightly more precise than Chicago's, but as far as I can tell, the article is little more than University of Bonn's press-release saying that they're playing in the same league. Granted, Chicago now has 5 years of experience patenting the process and developing applications with it.
http://mrsec.uchicago.edu/Nuggets/Holographic_Opt
It should be noted Chicago's method is a little more "rubic's cubish" than Bonn's "conveyor belt" setup. Coupled with what is probably a different setup for the optical trap and laser mesh, and the 5 year difference in publications, I would doubt that there would be any patent conflict and that this will wind up being a competing product.
Also, my guess is that these laser tweezers are going to play a part in the design of the first functional general nanoassemblers (of the style of Enterprise's 'replicators', not of the style of a grey goo assembler).
These also make great roachclips for bacteria.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Well, that aughta keep the obcessive comnpulsives busy for a while.
"Did anyone see my isotope of Boron?"
sed/tweezers and magnifying glass/laser tweezers and scanning tunneling microscope/
The researchers also announced that the first full program for their quantum computers would be entitled "Duke Nukem Forever".
"The game will be amazing", stated the researchers, "with state of the art graphics and the ability to play in multiple universes simultaneously."
The first beta release was expected some 25 years from now.
Yes, but can they be used to sort tiny screws in space?
The research group of Mark Raizen of the University of Texas at Austin has been working on similar techniques of 'tweezing' and 'laser culling'. Theoretically, in quantum tweezing, Gaussian lasers would sweep over a Bose-Einstein Condensate of ultracold atoms. The velocity of the sweep can be tuned in such a way that Landau-Zener tunnelling criterion is only satisfied for one atom in the reservoir and it tunnels into the sweeping beam.
h tml
m l
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v89/i7/e070401
In addition, 'laser culling' is a process by which a doppler-cooled set of atoms, kept in a MOT trap, can have the nuber of atoms whittled down by lowering the trap height. This can be done until a sub-poissionian regime is achieved and a definite number state is in the trap.
http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/2006/01/physics04.
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/bec/index.ht
l'Homme n'est Rien l'Oeuvre Tout: Gustave Flaubert to George Sand
Mini Me, stop humping the "laser". Maybe you and the laser should go get a frickin' room.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Can someone explain how this differs from what IBM did in 1990?
e /vintage_4506VV1003.html
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintag
Yes, it is interesting (I don't think I am a Luddite) but attempts to make leading edge practical physics understandable by governments and the great unwashed seem doomed to founder in misunderstanding. This is not a conveyor belt, this is not a tweezer, and nobody is writing anything on atoms. It's about as helpful as saying that I've succeeded in using a matter transfer process to increase the potential energy of a car (I've driven up a hill.)
This may be a slightly excessive rant, but I do think that any attempt to popularise or spread understanding of science by proceeding from reality to an extremely high level analogical overview while completely missing all the science in the middle - is doomed to failure and symptomatic of a society with growing scientific illiteracy.
Pining for the fjords
When I first read the headline I thought it said "Laser Tweezers Used to Snort Atoms"
wow. that would've been tough.
Here's a picture of it in action:
.......
The latest commercial about Adrian Monk (on the USA Network) came to mind. He's in a restaurant arranging exactly 100 corn kernels in a perfect 10 x 10 square, and moving the remainder to a separate bowl.
Writing stories for computers and humans since 1979
I read that at first as "'Laser Tweezers' Used to Short Atoms" (like shorting a circuit), which in my opinion would have been a much more amazing accomplishment than sorting atoms.
... and in the DRM, bind them.
I remember that an IBM researcher wrote IBM with gold atoms using an atomic force microscope, quite a long time ago..
Why brings using laser tweezers to do the same thing?
It doesn't seem simpler.. Maybe the temperature used can be higher? Or maybe it works with different atoms that can be used with an AFM? Or maybe it's easier to automate?
Frankly this article is poor, what is so interesting about using lasers instead of an AFM??
For chrissakes don't drop one of those atoms - if it rolls off onto the floor - you'll *NEVER* find it again.
www.sjbaker.org
Don't be such a sexist. Us Tom Selleck types are awful proud of our anal rug.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Hey, maybe this guy has hope now!
Reminds me of the French car in Tom McCall's "Zany Afternoons" -- the car that was "so exclusive that none will be built!" The only way to secure information is to not send it. That works, generally. Encase the computer in concrete after removing the wireless connection, wrapping the box in lead foil and unplugging the cables. Data is safe. The frog is deaf...
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Ah, there they are. Right next to the sonic screwdriver.
Can this technique be used to shrink digital circuits even more? for the short term, it would be more useful to increase performance of digital computers.