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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.
Where do these molecules get their energy to carry "packages"? Surely they don't carry other molecules around for free. I'd think either the molecules do their job for some distance then get degraded, or they need a special substrate. Either way, the article doesn't say.
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
... and noone has anything to whine about ...
... to welcome our new new nano carrier overlords.
just to get is started
I'd like to be the first
In soviet russia carbon dioxide carries You!
"Cutbacks have forced us to introduce the Imperial Nanowalker"
This is an article submitted by Roland Piquepaille.
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.
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.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
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?
Bloc In order t=o
". 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.
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!
When your Carbon Dioxide absolutely, positively has to be there over night.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
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?
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!!!
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!"
show that FrEeBSD
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!
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