Radical fabric is one atom thick
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A new class of material, which brings computer chips made from a single molecule a step closer, has been discovered by scientists.
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A type of carbon fibre could be woven into super-strong body armour for the army and police.
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Blog: Fullerenes are nanoparticles that could prevent allergic reactions.
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Combining molecular modeling with old-fashioned mechanics yields a design for a nanoscale valve that controls the flow of minute amounts of fluids like drugs.
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The combination of a rubber sheet, embedded graphite particles and an array of organic transistors makes for an artificial pressure-sensitive skin.
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U.S. scientists say they have found a way to manipulate carbon nanotubes without destroying their extraordinary electrical properties.
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Recently two books,          by Peter Woit         and         by Lee Smolin,          have been published questioning whether the enormous theoretical        effort applied to the problems of string theory has been        fruitful.  Both books have been reviewed in           several        popular        publications,          and generated substantial discussion both inside and outside of        the physics community.                        One response was published several days ago           by Briane Greene          on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times (also        here).  A          famously grouchy observer          called the editorial a long, wistful plea for patience.  But        what struck me most as I read it was its similarity to the           crackpot index          maintained by John Baez.  So, for fun, I scored it.
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(InfoWorld) - IBM has demonstrated how to perform certain computer functions on single atoms and molecules, a discovery that could someday lead to processors the size of a speck of dust, the company said Thursday. Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in California developed a technique for measuring magnetic anisotropy, a property of the magnetic field that gives it the ability to maintain a particular direction. Being able to measure magnetic anisotropy at the atomic level is a crucial step toward the magnet representing the ones or the zeroes used to store data in binary computer language. In a second report, researchers at IBM's lab in Zurich, Switzerland, said they had used an individual molecule as an electric switch that could potentially replace the transistors used in modern chips. The company published both research reports in Friday's edition of the journal Science. The new technologies are at least 10 years from being used for components in commercial products, but the discoveries will allow scientists to take a large step forward in their quest to replace silicon, said IBM spokesman Matthew McMahon. To build faster, smaller chips, IBM and other chip vendors like Intel and AMD have shrunk the dimensions of chip features from 90 nanometers to 65nm in the current generation of chips and plan to continue to 45nm and 32nm in coming years. The problem is that wires built from silicon tend to leak more electricity at each step on that scale and will eventually reach a limit where they are no longer useful. "Across all our areas of nanotechnology research, we're trying to determine the new kinds of materials we can use in computing when silicon reaches its fundamental limits. The ultimate goal is molecular-level computers, but the interim products will probably be hybrids with current technology, using things like carbon nanotubes," McMahon said. IBM defines nanotechnology as work done at a scale of 100nm or smaller. At that scale, scientists must use a tool called the STM (scanning tunneling microscope) to photograph and manipulate individual atoms as they did in their latest research. Their next challenge is to find a way to make these laboratory demonstrations work at room temperature, he said. Having measured the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom, "their next step is finding atoms that can do it at stable temperatures that are suitable for storage devices. If they can find that, it's still a decade out from commercialization," he said. The Zurich researchers also developed a technique for using a molecule containing two hydrogen atoms as a switch, either on its own or with an adjacent molecule. They are now looking to apply the method to many other molecules, enabling the system to work as a collection of logic gates, the building blocks of microprocessors. Even if the teams reach those goals, they must find a way to manufacture the systems on a large scale, instead of moving single atoms with the STM. One possibility is to use the process of self-assembly, where atoms under certain conditions will naturally form the desired shapes. In May, IBM said it had used that approach to insulate the wires on a chip by creating trillions of tiny, vacuum-filled holes around each one.
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By The Boston Globe  Feb. 7--NANOTEcHNOLOGY -- engineering substances down to billionths of a  meter in size -- holds out such promise of providing super-strong materials or  desalinating water inexpensively that no one wants to put a red light in its  way.
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Tycho: Two new shirts today. One based on the Broodax Strips, which can be found here, and looks like this:   And another shirt based on the control scheme for Starfire Saga V: Laserion, which can be found here, and looks like this:   (CW)TB
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You electrons - one at a time, please Boffins at Britain's University of Manchester have created a transistor out of an atom-thick sheet of carbon. The high-speed device is so small only one electron can pass through at once. Crucially, the transistor operates at room temperature making it potentially viable for future microprocessors.â¦
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Blacker than a black cat in a coal cellar US researchers announced yesterday they'd concocted the darkest material on the planet - a carbon nanotube substance so black it absorbs more than 99.9 per cent of light, Reuters reports.â¦
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Researchers create three-dimensional structures using DNA-directed assembly.
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Researchers find way to make tiny structures emit different wavelengths of light.
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By Jeremy Laurance  After organic food and Fair Trade cosmetics comes "sustainable" fashion. Scientists are investigating natural sources for biodegradable artificial fabrics made from raw material such as chicken feathers and rice straw.
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US scientists develop tiny energy-generating fibres that could be used to create self-powered smart fabrics.
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New York researchers report creating a material that is by far the darkest substance ever made.