Berkeley Scientists Develop Self-Assembling Nanorods

First time accepted submitter techgeek0279 writes "Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods to self-assemble into one-, two- and even three-dimensional macroscopic structures."

Comments

Re:And yet they can't mass product them?

[Karmashock]

Oh please don't bring up that joke all over again.

That stuff has to be the most over-hyped medical hazard in US history.

Also... its likely that removing it from the space shuttle is why started to become too hazardous to fly. They were initially designed to use asbestos between the panels and the structure. That was removed and replaced with something less effective.

Anyway... this sort of material isn't something you waste putting everywhere. It's something you use when nothing else will get the job done.

We also desperately need a replacement for asbestos that is cost effective and at least as good at containing heat.

I'm tired of environmental and health concerns forcing us BACK in time. Nuclear power plants are being shut down and there is nothing to replace them but coal. Coal is being shut down and there is nothing to replace them but hydro power. Many of the wonder materials we've discovered over the years have health concerns and so we ban them and replace them with inferior substitutes.

Right now the State of California in which I live is trying to build a "high speed rail" system from Los Angeles to San Francisco which will be SLOWER then an airplane, cost more then an airplane, and go to fewer places then an airplane. Does that stop them from building it even with the state going broke?

Not long ago we had a big solar power plant we were building shut down because it infringed on the habitat of a local lizard. I mean... are you f'ing kidding me? There is no where on earth you can build where something like that won't happen. So by that genius logic we can never build anything ever again anywhere.

Sorry I'm ranting here... I'm annoyed by all the Luddites.

Know what the first person to discover fire said?

Ouch.

Imagine if some group of jackasses at the time had said "oh fire is dangerous, you shouldn't use that. And it's a threat to the environment. And the smoke will give people cancer... etc"... If the alternative is worse then it doesn't matter.

Fire for all it's threats will keep you warm. It will cook your food. It will clear land. It will keep most dangerous predators away. Fire is awesome.

Likewise, there are a lot of technologies and materials and forces that have negative effects. But if we're careful about it and the pros outweigh the cons then we should do it.

Lets say a few thousand people in the US get cancer every year as result of asbestos exposure. Bad right? Okay, what if in the process we save a few tens of thousands of people from burning to death?

Choices. Now if I can get the best of both worlds, fine. But if I have to let tens of thousands die to save a few thousand then that's stupid.