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Walking Molecule Now Carries Packages
Roland Piquepaille writes "Chemists from the University of California at Riverside designed two years ago a molecule which could move straight on a flat surface — a nano-walker if you wish. Now, they've found a way to force this walking molecule to carry packages. The nano-worker can now carry two CO2 molecules. And like yourself when you carry two heavy bags, this nano-worker is slower when it carries other molecules. The researchers think their discovery will lead to reliable ways of carrying molecules, an equivalent of the conveyor belts in today's factories."
Just let me know when they can carry me home from the bar- then it'll mean something to me.
What powers this thing?
They'll unionize & all your research will be useless and futile against their nano-unions.
Think of the organized crime opportunities! Yeah stuff in the warehouse does really just walk off.
Though if walkers get a collective consciousness it would self-organized crime.
Has the molecule indicated he wants to form a union?
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
"Cutbacks have forced us to introduce the Imperial Nanowalker"
This is an article submitted by Roland Piquepaille.
They get up really, really early.
but can it carry Astatine Ununoctium Nitrogen (AtUuoN)?
Teaching them to drive nano-trucks and get signatures on a clip-board.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
So what's the big deal? I can carry a lot more than two C02 molecules around and make turns and my parents are still kicking themselves for creating me, why should these scientists be proud of their inferior creation?
For the non-scientific among us, think Lemmings, only less suicidal.
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.
...can take millions of years to be there on time and weighs less then a very small molecule, let University of California at Riverside work for you.
If you have complaints about the article, why did you post it?
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a nano-walker if you wish.
I don't. Now what?
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
"What did the first nano-walker water molecule say to the second nano-walker water molecule who'd just tripped while carrying his load of CO2?" "Up and ATOM Mister!". (sorry. been a long day)
"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet
I've started a new tag, just for this article: piquepaille. The idea is to warn everybody that it's Just Another Slashvertizement.
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Dial a CO2 Molecule!
It'll be delivered by our own walking molecules!
how long until
Those lazy chemists.. they can't be bothered to move a molecule. -_-
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs
and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing!
Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky,
it's fun, it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky, it's fun,
It's a wonderful toy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy.
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
Cue the Powerhouse music, as thousands of nano-walkers move in unison...
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
So, what is the nano-walker carrying the two molecules in?
A nano-bag? Was is packed by a nano-bagger? At a nano-market?
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
Well, super, it can carry CO2. How soon can they train it to carry something really uselful like caffeine? And will injesting caffeine-laden walkers help speed the sweet goodness faster to my decaying brain?
". Now, they've found a way to force this walking molecule to carry packages."
Riiiiiight. Force. Like they held a gun to the petri dish and yelled at it.
And we'll have nano-insurrections as well, put down by spartian-like white blood cells, nano-augmented themselves.
It can be some kind of tom-clancy novel, but based in the bloodstream.
It seems he's continued to think about it(Some /.ers do that from time to time). Also, he wasn't complaining, but rather asking a question. Perhaps he posted the question hoping someone more knowledgeable than himself would have answers or that the mass of people reason /. would come up with reasonable answers. That's a heck of a reason to post a story on a discussion board, for discussion.
should read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler. Roughly speaking, Drexler is the father of nanomanufacturing. I bought it on a whim when I read about him in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (of Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, In the the Beginning was the Command Line, and Snow Crash fame). Interesting times ahead.
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
And like yourself when you carry two heavy bags, this nano-worker is slower when it carries other molecules.
Everyone knows it'll walk faster if it carries a nano-knife.
Our nano-mule overlords are welcome to carry you!
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/6569/glider8ci. jpg
our nano size underlords. May we construct statues in their name. I see them know posters on every corner: Nano Brother is Watching You!
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
...for now.
I saw it on Slashdot, it must be true!
Perhaps he commented on his own story with some half-baked comment/question hoping to generate even more traffic to his well known ad site, therefore generating even more revenue. This guy has quite the history on slashdot, look into it...
When your Carbon Dioxide absolutely, positively has to be there over night.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I looked through some of his past posts, but only one that I looked at seemed to provide a link to his website. Maybe I didn't look well enough, but the accusation is not immediately and obviously true(even if it is true). The thing I did notice is that he is notorious. For good or for bad, he doesn't seem to mind much. If he is trying to generate revenue, he's certainly low-key enough that he seems to be a legitimate ./ user to the editors and admins. His website didn't seem to terrible ad-infested either. I can't blame him for shamelessly seeking a little bit of publicity on Slashdot in order to make some money with his blog. If I were I blogger I might try the same thing. Anyway, I suspect his question might have been legitimate, even if redundant.
THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!
...a tiny motorcycle, that he can ride down these tiny paths, and
Oh wait. Sorry. My other tab's on Linerider.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
will they all march off like lemmings spilling their hazardous cargo about thwreak havoc on the wee universe they inhabit?
Native americans used to drive buffalo herds off cliffs. Within their world view it was not considered wasteful.
Are lemmings the happy medium?
So, how many times its own atomic weight can one of these things carry? Basically, how heavy of a load can it take without breaking the chemical bonds in the molecule's legs? And can you spread the load across several of them?
If you sprayed a bunch of them on the underside of a paperweight (in a way that assured uniform orientation), could it then walk off by itself?
What is their horsepower equivalent?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I looked through some of his past posts, but only one that I looked at seemed to provide a link to his website.
/.), but another to link to your own site as an unecessary level of indirection, solely because it generates add revenue.
The links to his website are in his story submissions, and he has posted a lot of them. Instead of linking to the source of the story, he links to his blog which links to the story, basically directing traffic through his typically zero-value-added blog for no reason. Oh, except he gets money.
It's one thing to link to your own site if it is the source of the story (e.g. any of the various hobbyist projects that show up on
The enemies of Democracy are
You know, if you got that molecule to carry something flammable weighing less than 44 protons, you've got a deadly weapon (if its used in large amounts, and provided you have an ignition source)
... for those banana molecules!!!
The problem a lot of people have with Roland is:
1) For a while a year or two ago, it seemed like every other story posted was submitted by him
2) He used to always link *only* to his own blog, not to the actual article in question
3) He (used to?) sells his consulting services on how to drive traffic to your website
4) Despite numerous complaints and comments, neither he nor the admins were listening to us
Now they're not necessarily all his fault, but all together it lead to an awful lot of speculation, including about whether or not he was paying for his stories to be posted. It was this uproar, when the admins finally took notice, that lead to the "nofollow" attribute being added to the submittor's URL when a story is posted.
I can't blame him for shamelessly seeking a little bit of publicity on Slashdot in order to make some money with his blog.
That's just it though - for a while, he was shamelessly seeking - and getting - a lot of publicity. It started to look an awful lot like advertising to a lot of people, some of which pay not to get adverts here.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
so now we only have to build a ladder into the space and all this little molecules can
carry away our co2 pollution....
get your hummers out of the garage!
I've be trying to become morbidly obese, but this is hard work. If I didn't need to move any of my molecules, that would probably be a big help.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
How adorable! I can just imagine the little thing walking about carrying its little loads.
I want one!!!
Someone will ask me how my nano movers are:
"Belligerant and numerous!
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Interesting... how does the speed compare to mailing DVDs from LA to New York?
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
Ow man! I've wasted so much time on that, programming it for tons of different platforms, trying to get useful creations, etc :) It's always been one of the more inspiring bits of programming for me, to be able to make things like this with just the simplest ruleset.
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
muRobot
tone
TFA gave me an amusing idea. It might be possible (eventually) to build a physical molecular embodiment of Conway's "Game of Life" - little molecules running around on a field, combining into 'teams' with different behaviors.
The molecules themselves could be components in the game, or they could be the 'mules', carrying the game pieces (which would be the information component).
Of course, hypothetically this could be extended to many other cellular automata.
They could also implement or be components of what are generally called 'agent' systems, similar to NetLogo and Sugarscape. Perhaps a system based on these could be 'fast(?) hardware) for an agent simulation engine.
They could also implement certain kinds of information-driven physical processes. In that case I suppose they would qualify as the tiniest 'nanites' (nanobots). Whether there are any practical applications, it would be an interesting achievement and certainly amusing - at least to me!
(Several ideas in this comment appear to be the seeds of patentable ideas. For the record, if so then I will adopt some form of Creative Commons approach to their use by others. -GB)
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
When I read this, the first thing that came to mind was a real-world analogy of the classic mother-of-all-simulations - Conway's "Game of Life".
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Oh wait..
I for one welcome our slavedriver-whipping molecular Overloards!
10$ to view it...