Slashdot Mirror
Nanotech Surprise: Shooting Lasers at Buckyballs Makes Them Bigger
SchrodingerZ writes "Since 1985, scientists have been trying to determine how Buckyballs (scientifically named Buckminsterfullerene) are created. They are molecules with the formula C60 (a fullerene) that forms a hexagonal sphere of interlocking carbon atoms. 'But how these often highly symmetric, beautiful molecules with extremely fascinating properties form in the first place has been a mystery.' For over three decades the creation of these molecules have baffled the scientific community. Recently researchers at Florida State University, in cooperation with MagLab, have looked deeper into the creation process and determined their origin. It was already known the the process for buckyball creation was under highly energetic conditions over an instant, 'We started with a paste of pre-existing fullerene molecules mixed with carbon and helium, shot it with a laser, and instead of destroying the fullerenes we were surprised to find they'd actually grown.' The fullerenes were able to absorb and incorporate carbon from the surrounding gas. This study will help to illuminate the path towards carbon nanotechnology and extraterrestrial environmental studies, due to buckyball's abundance in extrasolar clouds."
This means we can do on Earth what happens in space? Doesn't that mean there's no reason to go into space to mine space-fullerene? How will Space Nutters react to this? I'd better start buying stronger leather straps and more Haloperidol.
While reading the first sentence, for one moment I thought it was going to end like this:
Since 1985, scientists have been trying to determine how Buckyballs (scientifically named Buckminsterfullerene ) are useful.
I'm pretty sure I've seen these used by various supervillains in every possible comic to become stronger by absorbing energy.
Looking solely at fiber optic communication (which uses lasers to send signals down those crazy fibers), you have to grant lasers non-theoretical credits. Beyond that, they make possible barcode scanners, etc.
Is this science? What the heck is this? Why would I want to read factual or interesting issues!? Where did /. go!?
We are the speculative baseless articles I can use to troll around!? Give them back!!!
Kidding!!! Kidding!! Please please read this as a joke!!!!!
I knew mankind would find a solution for the so-called "global warming" problem. Since buckyballs absorb carbon when lasers are shot at them, all we need to do is sprinkle buckyballs into the ocean. Then it's just a matter of finding some fish or other marine animal to equip with laser beams to activate them, at which point all the excess carbon dioxide will be incorporated into the buckyballs. Voila! I'll be patenting this idea when my lawyer gets into his office on Monday morning.
I don't know why I bother reading these links anymore. I'm waiting for someone to say how these devices will replace PCs and I have yet to see it. Perhaps some jobs can be easily transitioned over to portable devices and touch screens but dedicate computers have a place into the foreseeable future. Voice recognition technology is still barely better than a joke. Touch is convenient but is a significant limitation on detailed work and speed. The internet revolutionized many jobs and many people spend a good portion of their day using the Internet as an encyclopedia or trouble shooting guide. How many of you (using a PC) have dozens of tabs open right now? My browser has 26 tabs. I have email on another monitor, music playing in the back ground and a large file copy running. I'm not in the cloud. Until the Internet is as stable at my HDD I won't trust my data to a remote storage solution. PCs are not dead and they are not dying anytime soon.
I've got a dog toy that looks just like a Buckyball
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
Since 1985.... for over three decades... So when did I step through the temporal doorway? Last time I checked the calendar we still had a couple years before we can try to meet up with Marty McFly.
and CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray.
Corrective eye surgery, along with many other types of keyhole surgery.
Laser Welding
LIDAR
Laser Printers
Laser cutting and engraving
and, ofcourse, the Laser Harp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_harp
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
Sorry, my post is slightly off-topic, but I found this remarkably interesting.
Britannica: Blunt text, almost no pictures, broken into 5 pages, the last two of which are junk. Surrounded by links that claim to be "relevant" (the 3 links on some dudes that are probably working on the topic are, I would say, quite irrelevant if someone wants to learn more on fullerenes and the ones on "carbon" and "cluster" are way too elementary to be of any use) and massive header/footer with yet more junk links. No citations in the article, the "Bibliography" section only lets you submit a publication for consideration without providing any information on what has already been considered and their "Citations" section is about how to cite their own article!
The Wikipedia article on the other hand, is on a single page, with lots of pictures, one of which is animated. There is a far more granular Table of Contents than in Britannica, with a discreet pane on "Nanomaterials" high up (offering elementary knowledge, even a "in popular culture" link) and a footer on "Allotropes of carbon" (offering more in-depth information). Translations in 30+ languages are to be found on the left. And there are 58 citations, a discussion page, 5 "further reading" links that are actually relevant and 10 or so external links, which can be directly translated into traffic that Wikipedia is generously streaming to 3rd party cites.
I have taken Wikipedia for granted for so long. I am SO donating next time.
What if you keep shooting lasers at 'em will they keep growing? I'll find out, get me a laser and some of these buckyball things.
When you have a laser, everything looks like a buckyball.
Holography
Laser ranging
Ignition in modern engines
Point to point communication
Missile guidance systems
THE FIRST ALL-IN-ONE
Male Performance Enhancer AND BuckyBALLS Enlargement
WITH THE TRADEMARKED SWEDISH INGREDIENT CRETIN-MAKER
LASER tecnology, as seen on TV.
http://www.BuckyPerformance.com
CLIHCK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW TO RECEIVE YOUR FREE 1
MONTH SUPPY WITH THIS INTRODUCTORY OFFER!!
... and Chinese (Simplified) http://translate.google.com/#auto|zh-CN|Buckminsterfullerene and click the "Listen" button for some prepubescent humor...
If lasers make them grow, is there a limit? Can we control their growth such that they grow, say, into a cylinder? Or a bilayer sheet? If so, then can we do it in some other way than with lasers? Is it fast?
This could revolutionize the production of ultra-useful carbon allotropes.
As they found out much to their pain and horror that it doesn't work as a penis enlarging technique.
You're still missing one: lasers can be used to calibrate sarcasm detectors to sub-micron accuracy.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Transformers, robots in disguise... seriously for a second, if this could be embedded into a polymer with fiber optic hookups then all manner of mobile polymers is possible. Rubber suits for the disabled that augment muscle strength. Next gen aircraft with dynamic surface movement. This is really neat.
You're still missing one: lasers can be used to calibrate sarcasm detectors to sub-micron accuracy.
Oh yeah, that would really be useful.
But I thought Carbon was 12. So, if it's a hexagon, wouldn't it be C72?
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
You, sir, owe me a new monitor.
The sarcasm detector was 95% to completion in analyzing your post before it (the monitor) caught on fire.
"For over three decades the creation of these molecules have baffled the scientific community."
Statements like this are rather disingenuous to the scientific community and fail to accurately depict the scientific process. Certainly there are a large number of "baffling" topics under investigation, but I wouldn't necessarily characterize the investigators as being "baffled". The overuse of this word in the context of science reporting seems to imply inept bumbling rather than the actual methodical (and occasionally inspired) process of scientific investigation (observe->hypothesize->predict->experiment->evaluate->refine). Certainly, many hypotheses are created, tested and found wanting for any number of reasons, but the very fact that an hypothesis has been falsified or found to be incomplete adds to our knowledge of what isn't so, and narrows the field of possible explanations.
Certainly, some instances (such as the summary blurb above) can be explained away as laziness in reporting and the desire to reach the lowest common denominator. However, this popular media representation of "baffled" scientists is easily hijacked for the mis-characterization of inconvenient findings by politically, financially or ideologically motivated groups. Couple with the joyful glee with which young earth creationists, ufologists, ghost hunters, psi investigators, AGW denialists and other pseudo- or anti-science proponents claim that science is "baffled" by (or worse, suppressing) their various claims, it is no wonder that a frighteningly large number of people have little understanding of the scientific method, little trust in the scientific enterprise, little appreciation of the degree to which their lives have been improved by science and almost no concept of the time and effort required to move from an observation to a consistent theory to explain it or a practical application of a discovered principle. Scientific literacy seems to be trending sharply downward (at least here in the US, but probably many other countries as well), and the general population is less and less equipped for critically evaluating the endless stream of claims and counter-claims that appear in the marketplace of ideas. Perpetuating the baffled scientist meme is not particularly helpful in combating this trend.
Granted, this article is a single example, and the case is rather benign, but I am increasingly dismayed by the inaccurate use of "baffled" in science reporting and felt I had to make my case. Perhaps a better statement would have been "The creation of these molecules has been a topic of intense investigation by the scientific community since their discovery in 1985"
Well, we now know what "living metal" the Robot was made out of in that old Tom Baker episode. They shot it with a laser, and it grew. Ergo, fullerenes.
You're supposed to use an inanimate carbon rod.
They make mine bigger, too ! But, it sure hurts ! LOL !
Those of us who had microwave ovens in the seventies pioneered this technique when we nuked marshmellows...
(Try it... and start of with big ones!)
Just make your hull out of buckballs with a mass of carbon floating around... Maybe magnetically attracted to the hull. The more they shoot, the bigger you get.
Just watch out for plasma torpedoes.
dont google buckyballs without strict image search
Just let me be the first to say:
Evil begets evil, Mr President.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Cat toys
Makes some shiny things colory
Lightsabers (any day now)
Making your mouth look scary, then curiously strange, when it's dark
Makes Sci-fi cooler (see Lightsabers above)
Don't forget the sharks!