IBM Measures Force Required To Move Atoms

Tjeerd writes "IBM scientists, in collaboration with the University of Regensburg in Germany, are the first ever to measure the force it takes to move individual atoms on a surface. This fundamental measurement provides important information for designing future atomic-scale devices: computer chips, miniaturized storage devices, and more." I've attached a video if you are interested.

Comments

Re:too much money for too little

[AmaDaden]

In other news IBM has talked about a new "highly accurate" price system for shipping of their servers.

Re:too much money for too little

[louks]

He obviously doesn't understand Part 3...

1. Move individual atoms to make company logo

2. Determine the force required to move those atoms

3. ???

4. Profit!

Re:too much money for too little

[Anonymous Coward]

A sunrise tax ... taxing people for watching the sun rise ... Brilliant !!!

(/Hopes no one in congress notices this joke.)

Re:I hope this isnt Digg

[Stanistani]

Q: How many IBM engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: (this line intentionally left blank)

Subscribe to IBM Gold Class Hardware Maintenance for those oddly insoluble problems!

Re:That's not their first try at atomic engineerin

[Actually, I do RTFA]

They've been the first (only?) company to construct their logo with individual atoms -

To be perfectly fair to other companies, IBM has a very simple logo. It is also black and white. Now that we can finally see atoms in color, other companies can get in on that action.

If you could make circuits like that, it would be really interesting, although useless. For instance, I can imagine an Air where the CPU (at the atomic level) looked like the Apple logo tesselated again and again.

Easy problem

[johnw]

Surely all you need to do is measure the force required to move mountains and then divide by the number of atoms in a mountain?

Re:he who can move atoms can move the universe!

[Thanshin]

He'd also need a place to stand.

Anyway, he'd never know whether he was moving the universe, or just himself.

Re:I hope this isnt Digg

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Q: How many IBM engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Just one. The real question is how many patent attorneys got involved! =)

SlashTube

[StikyPad]

Thank God we have embedded YouTube videos on Slashdot now. Now if only we could get people to post a bunch of asinine and off-topic comments below each video...

Re:A step forward

[I(rispee_I(reme]

Why, then we'll build an atom constructor to assemble subatomic particles into the necessary elements.

"Will work for electrons."

Re:too much money for too little

[Anonymous Coward]

"Of course, why move stuff instead of just fab as needed? Once you've torn something apart, you know what you need to make as many copies as you want."

Dang you! You just out-moded my transporter invention! Not even invented yet, and I'm already out of business. Maybe I can sue you in some European Anti-Trust court...? ;)

I agree completely!

[GameboyRMH]

Such a frivolous waste of money! I can't stand it when people do things that will never see a profit! That's what I tell my kids whenever they ask me to take them to the cinema or go to an amusement park or other silly wasteful things like that. They should be setting up lemonade stands on the roadside during their summer vacation.

Why just the other day I told my wife not to have sex with me because it's a complete waste of time and energy, which could be better spent packing coins into little rolls to change at the bank. Speaking of which, semen is quite valuable at sperm banks, so blowing it elsewhere is just shooting money out the window.

Wasteful people >:(