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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.'"

2 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. They're going to make a fortune... by pwnies · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...on people losing these things. "Damnit, where's my radio? Did I lose it again!? Oh wait here it is... no... that's pocket lint."

  2. 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.