Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working on a combination of the latest lithography and self-assembly block-copolymer techniques to create highly ordered self assembling ‘nanochips’.
via NSF News
Moshiur Anwar and Itay Rousso have demonstrated an atomic force microscope (AFM) that can take images of periodic processes with a time resolution of microseconds. Instead of sampling a surface by moving the microscopic probe, the probe is kept stationary in “force-sensing” mode as it records changes in up and down movements over time. The technique can only record repetitive nano-scaled movements which allow the microscope to move over and continue sampling the same movement for every pixel of the final constructed movie.
via physicsweb| Tech Review
NASA is funding development of carbon nanotube power cables or quantam wires at Rice University which are 10 times more conductive and 1/6th the weight of copper wire. Quantam wires will replace the copper wires in space shuttles with potential applications varying from space elevator tethers to flat panel displays.
via Wired News
By manipulating the written bits of digital media, the Molecular Media Project remixes images, music, and video by reorganizing the digital sequence at the nano-scale. Take for example, the remixing of digital music by growing spores of fungus on CDs. The semi-controlled fungus growth refracts the laser as it reads the information, creating different audio effects. From the description you would expect the digital manipulation to sound like a scratched CD, but surprisingly the sounds can overlap and resequence into something bearable.
Eagles – Hotel California MP3 [organic pigments, titanium dioxide, carbon black, aluminum or bronze powders; butane/propane propellant]
The eyes of moths have evolved to collect as much light as possible without reflection, in order to prevent moths being detected by predators. Motheye and MARAGâ„¢ films mimic this property with nano-scaled bumps reducing reflectivity to less than 1%.
Frounhofer | more info on motheye anti-reflective coating
via Blaine Brownell
Optical microscopes today can focus at about 400 nanometers (enough magnification to see the nucleus of a cell). By using a film of silver and UV light, the superlens can focus at about 60 nanometers. Sharper optics produced by enhancing evanescent waves as they pass the silver superlens, will allow nano-scaled visualization of living materials such as the movements of individual proteins in real-time. The technology would also bring imaging in various industries such as data storage and satellite imaging to a new level.
via Eurekalert | Thanks, John.
Here’s a concept rendering of a desktop nanofactory from the Foresight Institute by John Burch. The white cubes represent the parts of the assembly from the molecular scale to the finished product. Imagine anything. Then print it.
NASA’s new shape-shifting robot, TETwalker, could help the endurance of future spacecrafts. Its structure is a tetrahedron, consisting of telescoping struts and motors which are coordinated to shift the robot’s center of gravity, causing a tumbling motion.
The robot’s inherently rigid geometry coupled with its mode of locomotion make it an ideal candidate for the harsh conditions of space exploration. The current prototype, though not nano-scaled, is going through rigorous test to help optimize its performance. When the nano-scaled robot is realized, it would have the capacity to connect and disconnect from other TETwalkers, allowing an entire swarm of robots to form any shape as “autonomous nanotechnology swarmsâ€?, or ANTS.
TETwalker concept animation
via endgadget
Nanosolar Inc. claims to have broken several barriers to ubiquitous solar energy. Their manufacturing process consists of printing nano-scaled solar-cell layers, bypassing the traditionally expensive vacuum methods yet meeting and in some cases, exceeding industry standards. Major claims include a 3 week payback time and lightweight flexible panels.
The BBC has a report on several potential storage solutions of the future ranging from 2 or 3-dimensional arrays and nanoscaled solutions. The one that really catches my attention is Dr Török‘s multiplexed optical data storage which takes the current laser technology and adds the ability to sense the angle of the deflected laser. In other words, the information is no longer read simply as the discreet states of ones and zeros. Each point has the potential to hold an infinite set of states depending on the sensitivity of the angular detection. Beyond the capability to densely store enormous amounts of information, this technology could lend itself to transforming our method of computation from discreet to analog where there are an infinite states between one and zero. Understanding and performing analog computations would open doors to understanding intelligence and push computation in a new direction.
via BBC