nanotechnology

[hermanntrude]

what's your view?

I'm in so deep I don't know what the general public feels about it.

before anyone mentions nanobots and grey goo i should say they're just an imaginative myth.

 

[Kreskin]

what's your view?

I'm in so deep I don't know what the general public feels about it.

before anyone mentions nanobots and grey goo i should say they're just an imaginative myth.

Must be interesting to be in that field.

 

[s243a]

Well, my favorite applications of Nano Technology is carbon nano tubes. That said, non electronics and robotics are pretty cool, nano probes could perhaps eradicate nearly all illness and self replication could make production costs trivial.

 

[Toro]

"Secret government killer nanobot-itis" was one of the proposed diseases that the staff wanted covered in their medical plan in The Office.

As for nanotechnology, I'm all for it.

Its potential is revolutionary.

 

[hermanntrude]

It's a very interesting place to be working but it's never quite as astounding as the media portray it.

I went through a stage of total fascination for nanotubes, made paper models of them and investigated the various shapes you can make with defects, when it came to doing science with them I discovered they're expensive, usually impure and actually not hugely useful. The fascination though has made people try really hard and their potential is starting to show.

interesting that you mention nanoelectronics, S243a, cos that's what my thesis was on. I was the first person to make an unambiguous self-assembled molecular rectifier. Obviously it's totally obsolete work now but it was fascinating to work on such pure research. Half the time we were just trying to work out exactly what we were doing and why.

 

[s243a]

interesting that you mention nanoelectronics, S243a, cos that's what my thesis was on. I was the first person to make an unambiguous self-assembled molecular rectifier. Obviously it's totally obsolete work now but it was fascinating to work on such pure research. Half the time we were just trying to work out exactly what we were doing and why.

I was at an IEEE conference at Niagara falls and someone presented a paper on a ballistic rectifier. It sounds like your thesis was pretty cool.

 

[s243a]

I went through a stage of total fascination for nanotubes, made paper models of them and investigated the various shapes you can make with defects, when it came to doing science with them I discovered they're expensive, usually impure and actually not hugely useful. The fascination though has made people try really hard and their potential is starting to show.

Nanotubes are a popular topic. Forinstance on another forum I am at we discuss using them for a space elevator:
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3801&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

[hermanntrude]

I've heard a lot about that idea. It's the only material which might ever be able to hold that kind of tension. What a fanrtastic invention it'd be...

did you ever read "red mars" "green mars" and "blue mars", by Kim Stanley Robinson? about the colonisation of mars? Brilliant books although they take a bit of reading. In one of them a war breaks out and the end of the space elevator gets separated and the rest of it collapses... it wraps around the planet nearly twice and by the time the end hits it's travelling so fast it produces weird new minerals and diamonds from the impact.... imagine....

 

[s243a]

I've heard a lot about that idea. It's the only material which might ever be able to hold that kind of tension. What a fanrtastic invention it'd be...

did you ever read "red mars" "green mars" and "blue mars", by Kim Stanley Robinson? about the colonisation of mars? Brilliant books although they take a bit of reading. In one of them a war breaks out and the end of the space elevator gets separated and the rest of it collapses... it wraps around the planet nearly twice and by the time the end hits it's travelling so fast it produces weird new minerals and diamonds from the impact.... imagine....

I haven’t read that book. I don’t read that much. In Kim’s book the space elevator was supported in compression. Modern proposed space elevators are supported in tension and if broke would fly off into space instead of come crashing down.

http://www.liftport.com/papers/2005Nov_LP-Ribbon_Mass.pdf

 

[hermanntrude]

it was supported in tension in this book, but was broken near the top, so the tension was lost and the rest of it came down at an ever increasing speed

 

[s243a]

it was supported in tension in this book, but was broken near the top, so the tension was lost and the rest of it came down at an ever increasing speed

Okay but diamonds are heavier then CNT.

 

[hermanntrude]

anyway this is a massive future technology but there's some really cool stuff happening right now. LED's for instance, thin monitors for computers.... it probably wont be long before u can have a keyboard on your sleeve

 

[s243a]

anyway this is a massive future technology but there's some really cool stuff happening right now. LED's for instance, thin monitors for computers.... it probably wont be long before u can have a keyboard on your sleeve

I heard for TVs organic LEDs are the next big thing.
"
Advantages

The radically different manufacturing process of OLEDs lends itself to many advantages over flat panel displays made with LCD technology. Since OLEDs can be printed onto any suitable substrate using inkjet printer or even screen printing[15] technologies, they can theoretically have a significantly lower cost than LCDs or plasma displays. The fact that OLEDs can be printed onto flexible substrates opens the door to new applications such as roll-up displays or even displays embedded in clothing.
The range of colors, brightness, and viewing angle possible with OLEDs are greater than that of LCDs because OLED pixels directly emit light. Because of this, OLED pixel colors appear correct and unshifted, even as the viewing angle approaches 90 degrees from the axis perpendicular to the display. LCDs employ a backlight and are incapable of showing true black, while an "off" OLED element produces no light and consumes no power. In LCDs, energy is also wasted because a liquid crystal display requires polarizers which filters out about half of the light emitted by the backlight. Additionally, in color LCDs the color filters filter out two-thirds of the light output."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode

"Some people need bigger and better LCDs, but we're just fine with the 27-inch prototype Sony mentioned during its press conference yesterday. With a contrast ratio of greater than 1,000,000:1 (not a misprint) to go with its 1080p resolution, and >100% NTSC color reproduction, we'll take this Organic LED great looks in a small package any day. We promised to hunt it down on the show floor and so we did, finding it hiding amongst a rookery of 11-inch displays. Take a look at the gallery for a few more shots of this HDTV and hope it hits shelves someday."
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/sonys-1-000-000-1-contrast-ratio-27-inch-oled-hdtv/
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press_Archive/200409/04-048E/

 

[Tonington]

I read something a while back where they discussed some kind of film in food packaging that would change colour when the fruit reached ripeness, so customers wouldn't have to squish the crap out of the produce. I think it detects the ethylene given off by ripening fruits and vegetables.

 

[s243a]

I read something a while back where they discussed some kind of film in food packaging that would change colour when the fruit reached ripeness, so customers wouldn't have to squish the crap out of the produce. I think it detects the ethylene given off by ripening fruits and vegetables.

Why kind of fruit are we talking about?

 

[Tonington]

I can't remember now, might have been apples and pears? I'd like to see it with avocados. If it would stop people from sinking their thumbs into them.

 

[hermanntrude]

I read something a while back where they discussed some kind of film in food packaging that would change colour when the fruit reached ripeness, so customers wouldn't have to squish the crap out of the produce. I think it detects the ethylene given off by ripening fruits and vegetables.

I very nearly got a job in that very position. Cray Valley Products were working on it. right in my home town in the UK but i lost out to a guy with more experience. Very interesting project

 

[Tonington]

Dang, tough luck. I heard of something hailed as the holy grail of nano. You've probably heard of the aquaporins? Build a bag made of a thin polymer with billions of these aquaporins, to desalinate salt water. Apparently 1 sq. metre makes 260,000 litres of fresh water a day.

 

[hermanntrude]

Dang, tough luck. I heard of something hailed as the holy grail of nano. You've probably heard of the aquaporins? Build a bag made of a thin polymer with billions of these aquaporins, to desalinate salt water. Apparently 1 sq. metre makes 260,000 litres of fresh water a day.

wow. ive never heard of it. sounds good.

 

[hermanntrude]

wow!