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IBM Creates World's Smallest 3-D Map
schliz writes "IBM scientists have created the smallest 3-D map of the earth, so small that 1,000 maps could fit on a grain of salt (YouTube video from IBM). The 500K-pixel map was created in 2 minutes 23 seconds. Using a tiny, heated silicon tip, the technique reached a resolution of 15nm — comparable to the 10nm achievable by the more complex electron beam lithography. The researchers believe that smaller resolutions are feasible. Potential applications range from fast prototyping for CMOS nanoelectronics to fabricating shape-matching templates for self-assembling nano-rods or nano-tubes, IBM says. The researchers also produced a billion-to-one scale model of the Matterhorn." This is very much a laboratory technique at the moment, at least five years from commercial use.
>> at least 5 years from commercial use.
http://xkcd.com/678/
I mean, back in the seventies, my grandmother bought me a globe that could spin, was big enough to actually read AND had light! Bet it was a lot cheaper too.
That's going to be a PITA to fold.
1000 1:1 images of CmdrTaco's wang on a grain of salt. What an amazing age we live in.
I'm going to have to wait five years until I can have maps of the world on the head of my pins?
Bummer
No Street View == FAIL.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Ah miniature maps. The next big thing.
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beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
Perhaps the Earth we live on is in actuality someone's really tiny 3D map.
Ubisoft can use this to print their game manuals.
I'll believe it when I see it.
for Ants!?
it needs to be at least 3 times bigger than this.
a 3D map made of pixels created with a physical needle? what the hell does that mean? is this a physical map, or just information? what is a "pixel" in a 3D map? do they mean a voxel? or are pixels a unit of discrete physical space now? (3D physical space?). Somebody got their concepts all mixed up I think.
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Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
The researchers also produced a billion-to-one scale model of the Matterhorn
Fixed that for you.
IBM's web dream! Miniature world, miniature staff, miniature payroll.
To what scale is this a "map of the Earth"? At some point this will become so small a 3D map of the Earth is going to be indistinguishable from a sphere.
to hide from your opponents during a deathmatch on this level.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
Professor Slartibartfast is particularly proud of his glacier work with this model.
They just wanted to welcome our new ant overlords with a nice map of the Earth.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
Are just flat, not in 3D... Work in progress, I'd say. ;)
!
Ha, and I was planning to make one of these myself just the other day - small world!
With a surface area of 511,000,000 km^2 and only 500,000 pixels you are talking a pixel for every 1000 km^2. That is not what I would call a map, more so a spherical blob.
My addiction: Arguing with idiots. AKA Slashdot!
This is excellent news and will be a real help to very very very very very small blind people.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
I imagine with a lot of hard work they could eventually bring it back to 1x1 pixel.
perhaps this technology will help us unlock the crystal skulls...
Once again, they have used a technique someone else made and made a truly worthless contribution that simply serves to rev up the hype machine surrounding them. Just looking it up on google scholar, I found articles going back at least 6 years and calling it various things such as "thermochemical AFM etching", "scanning thermal lithography", and so on. Perhaps I'm being overly cynical, but in that case perhaps someone would care to explain exactly what their contribution has been to this technology?
You wanted higher DPI?
Set your phasers on "funky"!
This sounds like it could be useful for saving information in data blocks.
Was this really a problem in the past, that globes were too big?!? And really, doesn't a really tiny "3D map of the earth" look exactly like a ball bearing?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
This could have some neat applications. You can encode a large amount of information (like a detailed map of the world) in something the size of a marble and read it without power using an optical microscope. If done well, this could have applications for things from a modern rosetta stone to providing reference material for schools in places without electricity.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
They did a similar stunt about 10 years ago: engraved IBM with single molecules. I think there is no practical application -- they just roll the machine out of a closet every 10 years for publicity.
Oh, wait, here's their patent... from 1971 !?
1,000 maps could fit on a grain of salt
Table, Kosher, or sea?
Stop making these useless world's smallest thingies already and make something someone might actually buy.
"IBM presents: The World's Smallest Violin."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAlTOfl9F2w&feature=related
Like the question of whether there has been sex in space, this makes me wonder what the smallest-ever porn is. The corporate bigwigs can't be watching the machine all the time...
what is this? a map for ants? this map needs to be at least... three times bigger!
Give me a break, the proper measurement "is on the head of a pin". I mean, whoever heard of how many angels can dance on a grain of salt.
Never mind their motivation.
Nate
The real point of this tech is the ability to create precise 3D structures at nanoscale sizes. All it takes to jump start nanotech molecular manufacturing is one functional assembler. Functional is defined as able to build any structure I tell it to, including a copy of itself.
That being said, the five year figure is another red herring as we don't need to bring this tech to commercial production line viability. All it needs is enough refinement to successfully pull off a top down build of a viable prototype assembler. That assembler would then be the tool for further refinement and the technology in the article would be obsolete.
Pretty nifty for sure, but why a 3-D map? Why not solve a harder problem which is archival data storage? Seems to me being able to minutely etch the strings of 1s and 0s from a HD onto some material that either won't decay over time, or will decay so slowly as to vastly outlive optical and magnetic media, would be supremely useful for archival data storage.
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
Everyone is treating this like a joke, but really this is wonderful news.
Sure, it's been done before...and their tiny 3D map and model of the Matterhorn are not particularly useful, but it was just a demonstration.
The key here is the relative simplicity of their "nano-milling" machine. This idea could lead to some serious advances in cheap nanoscale fabrication in the next few decades. It could mean that it won't be just labs with hugely expensive equipment that get to play around with nanoscale structures...not to mention the potential industrial applications.
I'd like to see a Google Maps version, at 1 pixel per meter squared. At 40000 Km for the earths circumference and 15nm resolution I make that as giving a 60cm wide map. Now that's the right size and you could use an electron microscope to inspect any point. I suppose it is too small for colour, I wonder what one could do about that. Next step a 3D world at the resolution of Google streetmap!
thou discernest my thoughts from afar
Itty Bitty Matterhorn?
they hit 2nm resolution. That's when the quantum happy fun times really start.
If anyone's interested in finding out more on the science behind this story, we've set the original research article free to access for the next few weeks; you can find it here: http://www.materialsviews.com/details/news/687441/Nanocartography__in_3D.html Adrian Miller Advanced Materials