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More of the future is unfolding..; levitating objects and nanotechnology
Topic Started: Jan 10 2009, 01:56 PM (122 Views)
Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
This is pretty cool. Can you imagine if they could do away with friction in motor vehicles? How much efficient they would be?

http://news.aol.com/health/article/levitation-discovery-may-aid-medicine/300242

Quote:
 


Levitation Discovery May Aid Medicine

CHICAGO (Jan. 8) - U.S. scientists have found a way to levitate the very smallest objects using the strange forces of quantum mechanics, and said they might use it to help make tiny nanotechnology machines.
They said they had detected and measured a force that comes into play at the molecular level using certain combinations of molecules that repel one another.

The repulsion can be used to hold molecules aloft, in essence levitating them, creating virtually friction-free parts for tiny devices, the researchers said.

According to Time magazine, the levitating phenomenon "is not as uncommon as it might seem. Every time you ice skate, you experience something similar, as the shared properties of skate blade against ice create a thin film of water of a very particular thickness on which you, after a fashion, levitate." This time it just works on a microscopic scale.

Federico Capasso, an applied physicist at Harvard University in Massachusetts, whose study appears in the journal Nature, said he believed that detection of this force opened the possibility of a whole new class of tiny gadgets.

The team, including researchers at the National Institutes of Health, has not yet levitated an object, but Capasso said he now knows how to do it. "This is an experiment we are sure will work," he said. His team has already filed for patents.

"By reducing the friction that hinders motion and contributes to wear and tear, the new technique provides a theoretical means for improving machinery at the microscopic and even molecular level," Dr. Duane Alexander of the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said.

"The emerging technology of nanomechanics has the potential to improve medicine and other fields," he said.

The discovery involves quantum mechanics, the principles that govern nature's smallest particles.

By altering and combining molecules, tiny machines could be devised that could have applications in surgery, manufacturing food and fuel and boosting computer speed.

The discovery arose from Capasso's prior work as vice president of physical research at Bell Labs, the research arm of telecoms gear marker Lucent Technologies, now Alcatel-Lucent.

Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
Bell Labs has always been right at the cutting edge of fascinating stuff.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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George K
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Finally
Mik, get ahold of "Physics of the Impossible" by Kaku. He talks about all the stuff of science fiction, and what's possible, what's not, etc. He talks about levitation using nanotech and superconductivity in the book. It's a fun read, and not too heavy on the physics. I just finished it last week.
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- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
QuirtEvans
Jan 10 2009, 02:06 PM
Bell Labs has always been right at the cutting edge of fascinating stuff.
Used to be a national treasure, Bell Labs is now French. :shrug:
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Hmmm,... back on subject, molecular forces act only in extremely short distances... not exactly the sort of thing you can leverage to make big machines in motor vehicles better.
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
I agree Ax. What happens on a micro level is not necessarily transferable to the macro level such as Brownian motion.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
As in you did a heckuva a job, Brownian?
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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