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Single Nanotube Becomes World's Smallest Radio

Posted by kdawson on from the play-misty-for-me dept.

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "Researchers at the National Science Foundation have utilized a single carbon nanotube to perform all the functions of a standard radio, acting as an antenna, tunable filter, amplifier, and demodulator. They were then able to tune in a radio signal generated in the room and play it back through an attached speaker. The device is functional across a bandwidth widely used for commercial radio. From the NSF: 'The source content for the first laboratory test of the radio was "Layla," by Derek and the Dominos, followed soon after by "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys.'"

3 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Commercials by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, you not only want the entertainment for free, you want the distributer to pay for the privilege of getting it to your ears
    Please excuse me if I have a little trouble working up any sympathy for those poor, downtrodden advertisers.

    I don't mind hearing advertising with my music, but nearly 20 minutes per hour (as during drive time) is a little excessive, don't you think? I'm not prepared to start having bake sales for industries that got so greedy that it has driven them to near extinction.

    I'm pretty sick of corporations, whole industries, that believed they could treat their customers badly while attempting to drive every possible penny into their pockets, then start crying and whining when something better comes along and those customers turn their backs. It does seem, though, that killing the golden goose through greed is a defining characteristic of all corporations in this age of slash and burn profitism.
    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. The response from patent trolls by Prototerm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Several patent trolls have threatened to sue, claiming the work violates over 200 of their top-secret patents ("Just because the device functions on a quantum scale is not enough to avoid licensing costs" one source was quoted.) The trolls have claimed that research like this, if allowed to continue, will stifle true innovation by their exclusive licensees.

    --
    "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
  3. It's 1950's technology, and it's NOT a radio! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reading more closely, we discover that:

    It's not really a complete radio...It's just a tiny tuning fork.
    Demos like these make me ask: what the hell happened to research in America?

    They left out the fact that they were using a specially tuned PWM transmitter... and a high powered one at that... to vibrate the .6 cm nanotube structure.

    They left out (as well) the fact that they were using another specially tuned receiver to detect the movement and turn it back into audio.

    They could have done the same thing with almost any material, including a grain of salt, a slice of stale pizza or a drop of water. This is essentially the same as attaching an earphone to a crystal, and then tuning the transmitter to the crystal and making it vibrate by hitting it with a high powered modulated wave. I guess it's cool that they got a huge nsf grant to recreate an incomplete crystal radio.

    Using an external process to convert the vibration back into audio is cool and all, but I wish I could win big grants for such elementary application of well-known processes. Hey, maybe I could bounce a laser-beam off the carbon nano-tube and call it a "secure" nano-communications device! Who wants to help me write the NSF research request?

    A rerun of the hype surrounding MIT's shocking rediscovery of tesla's magic coil trick.
    I predict an NSF funded rebirth of spark gap transmitters.