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Creating Designer Isotopes
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to a Michigan State University (MSU) news release, 'Made-to-order isotopes hold promise on science's frontier,' nuclear physicists can now start a new career as isotope designers. These scientists can build specific rare isotopes to solve scientific problems and open doors to new technologies. The lead researcher says this approach has already given us the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan technology. He's now going further, saying that he wants to build objects 100,000 times smaller than the atomic nucleus. He calls this 'femtotechnology.' Also available are additional details and pictures of the tools used for this kind of research, picked from a 415-page design paper." Update: 05/11 14:30 GMT by SS: Readers have noted that the summary inaccurately portrays the scale of the 'femtotechnology.' The MSU researcher refers to "the capacity to construct objects on an even more minute scale, that of the atomic nucleus 100,000 times smaller."
I'd rather slam my cock by visiting:
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Sasha Grey really gets my rocks off..
I wish that Slashdot editors would not post stories by Roland Piquepaille. He is a paid publicity manager. He is paid to place stories. Do Slashdot editors get paid when they post his stories? They have never said they don't, apparently.
He has apparently succeeded in getting this story in many publications.
This sentence is nonsense: "He's now going further, saying that he wants to build objects 100,000 times smaller than the atomic nucleus." Someone made a mistake somewhere. If there are things that small, they have nothing to do with making isotopes. Neither Roland Piquepaille nor the Slashdot editors have enough knowledge of science that they could see the mistake.
There is apparently nothing particularly new about the apparatus described in the Michigan State University press release.
Apparently the writer of the Michigan State University press release, "Sue Nichols", didn't have the slightest understanding of the subject either, and didn't care, because she said, "Isotopes are the different versions of an element." Maybe she was in a hurry to go shopping. She could have looked on Google for a definition of isotope: "Atoms of the same element that have the same number of protons (same atomic number) but different numbers of neutrons (different atomic masses)."
Mod Parent Up.
He shouldn't have called Roland Piquepaille names, but he is right that there is an element of fakery about his stories.
Why does the "ohnoitsroland" and similar tags ALWAYS disappear? It is probably the ONLY reason I do anything with tags. I DON'T want to read anything submitted by this guy.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson