Researchers at the University of Alberta have constructed a molecular transistor that uses a single charged atom to control the current through a nearby molecule.

The molecular transistor, which is similar to a field-effect transistor, is smaller, faster, and consumes less power than current transistors.  It resides on a silicon substrate, opening the possibility of hybrid circuits that use molecular transistors where space and power consumption are a premium, and conventional silicon technology elsewhere.  Whether or not such circuits will be useful and cost-effective in computing remains to be seen.

Story at CBC

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Iomega has developed a technique using nanotechnology to give standard DVDs as much as 100 times the capacity.

The details are a little hazy, but Iomega’s press release says data will be encoded “on the surface of a DVD by using reflective nano-structures to encode data in a highly multi-level format.” It’s unclear if the discs would be compatible with existing players, though Iomega’s claims seem to indicate that.

The following line in the press release disturbed me, “The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed that Iomega invented the broad concept of exchanging data between a computer and another digital device using removable data storage.” Does this mean Iomega is going to demand licensing from every manufacturer of removable media?

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Carbon nanotubes studded with titanium atoms may be able to dissociate H2 molecules and reversibly adsorb the hydrogen atoms.  That means these nanotubes may make hyrdogen fuel cells practical, as they can store the hydrogen from gas form, then release it at ambient temperatures.  So far the results have just been calculated, but if this actually works it could have major impacts on energy technology.

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Researchers found that water in a carbon nanotube doesn’t freeze, even when cooled below eight Kelvin.  Some of the water forms an ice cylinder covering the inside of the tube, while a long chain of water inside the cylinder stays fluid.  This is weird stuff, but it will be cool to see how it’s eventually applied.

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The NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder have developed an ultraviolet laser amplifier that preserves the pulse spacing of the input beam.  Combined with infrared laser pulses lasting only a few femtoseconds (that’s really fast—the time it takes light to move one hundred-thousandth of an inch, or three tenths of a micron).  So what does this mean to you and me?

Well, nothing really.  Femtosecond pulses will be used to make super accurate clocks, but the UV femtosecond pulses can be used to image very tiny stuff.  The size of stuff that a probe beam can image clearly is proportional to the beam’s wavelength, so a UV beam can image smaller stuff than an infrared beam, and an electron beam can image stuff smaller still.  A UV laser that pulses so fast is like having a tiny video camera with a super high speed shutter, so look for groundbreaking advancements in spider-mite porn.

Credit: JILA

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I’m a do-it-yourselfer kind of guy.  Building something is so much more satisfying than buying it, and I’ve always enjoyed understanding how things work under the hood.  And I’m cheaper than Scrooge.

scanning tunneling microscope.

For the non-physicists out there, basically an STM works like an arc welder. You put a probe very close to a surface, and electrons jump across the gap like a quantum mechanical spark. Since electrons are moving across the gap, there is a current flowing through the probe which can be measured. The size of this current tells you what the surface “looks like” to an electron.

At first a homemade STM sounded kind of ridiculous. STMs require a probe with a tip sharpened to a few atoms that can be positioned with accuracy better than a tenth of a nanometer. The current flowing between the tip and the surface is in the nanoAmpere range. That’s really small. But then I realized that this technology is over twenty years old. Physics departments build these things from scratch all the time. Really, it’s not that hard. By leaving out the vaccuum chamber and sacrificing some accuracy, this is doable.

A group in Germany has plans for a simple STM online. They also sell all the stuff you need for around $1100. Unfortunately, I have a budget of about $10 and a stick of gum, so I’ll have to improvise a bit. Expect updates on my progress.

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Microelectromechanical systems or MEMS are micro versions of electrical gears, motors, switches, etc. that are used to significantly reduce the size of many of today’s and future devices from all kinds of industries. Common uses include defense/munitions applications, computer hard drives, optics, and many others.

livescience.com gallery | livescience.com

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Anyone that has been follwing Nanotechnology knows that the pharmaceutical industry is heavy into Nano-Drug development and it will be a trillion-dollar business.

Full Story

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Scientists are creating edible capsules only nanometers or billionths of a meter in size to enhance food or medicine. “We’re creating nanoparticles that can assemble themselves and made of materials already found in foods. We’re not doing any exotic chemistry,” Dinsmore said of his group’s work.

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If you do any reading of nanotechnology, this is something you should read. R&D at this level is really exciting.

moleculardiamond site

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