Reader (121) IBM develops 'instantaneous' memory, 100x faster than flash. Holograms Powered By Quantum Effects Can Show True Color From Any Angle. A new type of hologram harnesses a quantum effect and uses ordinary light to make 3-D still images. Future 3-D displays based on this technology would have no need for 3-D glasses or special screens. The technique is based on the behavior of free electrons on a metal surface, according to researchers at the RIKEN Institute in Japan.
A typical hologram is essentially a light-wave pattern, which is made by bouncing laser light off an object and onto a photographic plate. Shining light onto the etched pattern re-creates the image. But most holograms, like those on credit cards, either show up as a single-color 3-D image or change color depending on the angle at which you observe them. The new method uses the diffraction of excited electrons that propagate on a metal surface, according to Satoshi Kawata, co-author of a paper on the technique published today in the journal Science.
New 3-D TVs and gaming systems imitate depth by overlapping two-dimensional images. [Science] This Is The Smallest Computer Ever. Stretchable Nanogenerators Could Use Lung Motion to Power Medical Implants. Future flexible lung belts could harness energy from the rhythm of your breathing, powering pacemakers or other implantable medical devices. Nanotechnologists have found a way to integrate flexible piezoelectric materials with a stretchy silicone rubber, fashioning materials that can withstand lots of elastic strain while also harvesting energy from motion. Other piezoelectrics are not so elastic and can crack under pressure. Piezoelectrics, you'll recall, turn kinetic energy into electrical energy. To make the materials, researchers at Princeton University first made piezoelectric ribbons out of lead zirconate titanate, or PZT. Then they took a slab of silicone-based organic polymer and stretched it out.
They added the PZT ribbons, binding the materials together, and then they let go. As the silicon substrate contracted, the PZT buckled, with part of it releasing from the silicone surface. [Nanowerk] Harvard's Four-Cent Paper Accelerometer Could Make Motion Sensing Ubiquitous. New tiny force sensors made out of paper cost just four cents apiece, possibly enabling cheap microelectromechanical devices in anything from consumer electronics to medicine.
Harvard professor George Whitesides developed the paper accelerometers using chromatography paper, tiny sliver and carbon contact pads, and vinyl stencils. The process is so cheap and easy that the sensors could be disposable. Accelerometers are found in everything from car airbag systems to bridges to iPhones, where they basically measure the g-forces an object is experiencing. This information is relayed to other systems. In a car, for instance, acceleration forces might trigger airbags to deploy. Most MEMS accelerometers are silicon-based, and fabricating them takes several days of work inside clean rooms. The paper accelerometer is not as sensitive as its silicon counterparts, however; they can measure teeny forces smaller than 80 micronewtons, and the paper only reaches about 120 micronewtons. [IEEE Spectrum] The World's First Programmable Nanoprocessor Takes Complex Circuitry to the Nanoscale.
Nanocomputers have been around for decades as a concept, but in actual practice they've been harder to come by. Now, engineers collaborating at Harvard and the MITRE Corporation have taken a huge step forward for the field of nanocomputing by creating the world's first programmable nanoprocessor. Enabled by a series of advances in the design of nanowire building blocks and the way they are synthesized to create completed nanocircuitry, the method allows for far more complex circuits to be assembled at very small scales.
Described in a paper publishing today in the journal Nature, these super-small nanocircuits can be electronically programmed to carry out a variety of mathematic and logical functions. Further, the technology is scalable, meaning that while is is now possible to program a tiny nanoprocessor to carry out simple functions, its architecture allows for the creation of much larger circuits capable of ever larger functions. All that, naturally, is a ways off. Low-cost touchscreens made with carbon nanotubes. Researchers have developed touchscreens containing carbon nanotubes that can be made of low-priced renewable raw materials (Image: Fraunhofer IPA) Over the past decade, touchscreens have risen to dominate mobile phone and other mobile consumer electronic device interfaces – and their popularity shows no sign of waning.
Capacitive touchscreens, the type most commonly used in consumer electronics, usually use a conductor made of indium tin oxide (ITO). This material is well suited to this purpose due to its excellent conductivity and its transparency in thin layers. Unfortunately there are few deposits of indium in the world, which has prompted a search for alternatives. The main components of the new electrode material developed by researchers at Fraunhofer are carbon nanotubes and low-cost polymers. In addition to indium’s limited supply, ITO layers are also fragile, lack flexibility, and the process to deposit them onto a surface requires a vacuum and is costly. About the Author. Nanotechnology - AskMen.com. Nanotech Makes Single Molecule Glow, Showing New Promise For Tiny Optoelectronics. For the first time, scientists have observed a single molecule emitting light when sandwiched between broken segments of a carbon nanotube. The new device emitted just one photon for every 1 billion electrons, according to the study.
The research could lead to development of optical electronics based on individual molecules. Or Tron costumes for the masses. To build this Lite-Brite device, scientists from Germany, Switzerland and Poland created a tiny gap between two electrodes in a carbon nanotube and stuck a special molecule inside it. The gap was so small that it could only fit between one and three molecules, according to a report in PhysOrg. When the scientists applied a voltage, they saw bright spots of electroluminescence, which is the emission of light when a current passes through an object.
The light could be controlled by switching the voltage on and off, according to PhysOrg — proof that the molecule was where it should have been. In The Tiniest Receiver Ever, Graphene Can Directly Detect Radio Signals. A graphene sheet stretched among three electrodes is the tiniest device to directly receive radio signals, researchers say. Nanoscale radio receivers could be useful for sensing, physics studies and radio signal processing, which could even make them useful for mobile phones.
Stretched between two electrodes and hovering over a third, the graphene sheet works like a trampoline, resonating in response to a voltage that changes with radio frequency signals. The effect can be monitored by measuring the capacitance between the sheet and the third electrode. This is a major advance, according to Tech Review's arXiv blog — most nano resonators suffer from parasitic capacitance, a natural problem when small circuit parts are squished close together.
This interference drowns out the actual radio signals, and fixing it requires downmixing the signals, which limits the radio's bandwidth and makes it less effective. [Technology Review] New 'Metamaterial' First to Bend Light in Visible Spectrum. The Future of Medical Operations: The Nano Spider (PICS)
Nano-Wiretap Device Can Probe and Monitor Cells in Real Time. A new nano-scale wiretap device could tell researchers about the inner workings of cells, according to a new Harvard study. It involves a transistor that can take electrical readings, embedded inside a membrane that fits inconspicuously inside an individual living cell. The tiny probe, which is smaller than many viruses, is the first semiconductor device to take measurements of the inside of a cell. The nano-probe infiltrated living cells without damaging them, which is a drastic improvement over current cell-tapping technology, according to Harvard chemistry professor Charles Lieber, who led the research team. NanoFETs -- nano-scale field-effect transistors -- could allow scientists to "interrogate" cells, in the authors' words, to understand electrical impulses that cause neurons fire or heart cells to beat.
Existing transistor probes can only do this from the exterior of cells, like metal detectors hovering over the ground, as Nature News reports. [Nature News] All-optical quantum communication networks nearly realized, 'Answers to Life' airing at 9PM. New Fuel-Free System Moves Objects By Dissolving Them At One End and Rebuilding Them At The Other. A new fuel-free propulsion system for nanodevices works like a disappearing act, dissolving an object at one end and re-generating it at the other end. The method requires an electrical current to work, so it's not completely energy-free, but it could be an effective way to propel nanoscale materials inside nano- or micro-devices. It could even lead to disappearing magical motors that vanish once their task is complete. The process is based on bipolar electrochemistry, according to researchers in France. In an electric field, one end of a metallic object grows while the other end dissolves.
This self-regeneration essentially allows an object to move at the excruciatingly slow speeds of 100 micrometers per second. It's difficult to make nanoscale chemical reactions that are powerful enough to move something in a specific direction. The main advantage is that it requires no conventional fuel, but researchers say its adaptability is an added bonus. [CNRS via Science Daily] New Nanospheres are the Stiffest Biological Materials Ever Created, Surpassing Kevlar. Printable body armor, better bulletproof glass, and tougher steel are just a few of the applications for a new materials technology developed by Israeli researchers. A team of scientists there have developed a transparent material made of self-assembling nanospheres that is the stiffest organic material ever created, surpassing the properties of stainless steel and even Kevlar.
Developed by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University, the nanospheres are similar to the beta-amyloid proteins that make up the plaques found in the brains of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. But the new nanospheres are reinforced with an additional protective layer that makes them really, really strong. And really, really small. Naturally, such a thin, strong material could lead to revolutionary improvements in body armor, and one of the researchers even told Discovery News that in principle you might be able to print custom body armor from the material.