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Nano Light-Emitting Fibers In the Lab
moscowde writes "Researchers at Cornell University have created a so-called Nano-Lamp — a microscopic collection of light-emitting fibers with dimensions of only a few hundred nanometers. The fibers are made of a polymer spiked with ruthenium molecules in a process dubbed 'electrospinning.' The bright spots on the fibers are smaller than the wavelength of the light they emit. The nanofiber glows bright orange when exposed to an electric field and can be seen in the dark with the naked eye. A professor at Princeton University called this 'a breakthrough in the way nanosize light sources are made.' Since the nanofibers are flexible, they could potentially be used in clothing or bendable computer displays."
Four questions about bendable screens (which I love the idea of. I would have to update my laptop if they come out with those.) I am not a scientist, so I have no clue what the answers could be.
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Mark me on this. These fibers will be included in hair weaves and seen frequently in clubs.
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
Why not cover an entire wall with this stuff? throw in some nano-speakers for the ultimate home entertainment center.
This sig only exists because you are observing it.
i want to see curved displays - like a giant earth globe/sphere that is a display, or a mounted movable sphere you can be inside of, with your head at the center that displays inward to the viewer. you run around inside and the globe spins, moving you in a virtual environment - 3D WOW fun!
I was telling an engineer friend of mine that if she could make clothes that had dynamic writing on them, she would make a fortune. Imagine, a t-shirt that says: GOT ROOT? at one point, and GOT ROOT! at another ;-) Or a tshirt with a short animation playing across it. Instead of riding' spinnaz', rappers could make songs about wearin' scrollaz'!
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
But also, they will give us contact lens screens that give us the ability to edit the reality that we see, so you can just paste whatever you want over crazy stupid advertising shirts.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Somehow I don't think this will ever be a fashion statement.
Voltage is not the same thing as power. Power is the product of voltage with current, so these could use a small amount of current at 100 V and not dissipate that much power.
Sorry, my karma just ran over your dogma.
1) take any fluorescent or electro luminescent material
2) put down a drop of it smaller than a wavelength
3) excite it with UV light or electrons
4) viola and arbitrarily small light source much smaller than a wavelength
Coat the tip of any nano fiber this way and it's still true.
Wha's the big deal? Atoms emit light from source smaller than a wavelength all the time.
What's tricky is that short of negative index materials you can't propagate light or confine light beyond the near field in areas less than the wavelength squared (or thereabouts). This is not to say that light guides can't be smaller than the wavelength because some guides don't actually confine the light inside.
TFA does not give me enough info to see if they are beating this last effect.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Yeah, people who ride bikes, run, work on the highways, or do just about anything at night where you can get hit by a car would find it useless. I think it would be useful to anyone who wears an orange vest, except for hunters.