Thought Patterns

From University of Pennsylvania:

Water and Nanoelectronics Will Mix to Create Ultra-Dense Memory Storage Devices, Researchers Say
April 26, 2006

PHILADELPHIA — Excessive moisture can typically wreak havoc on electronic devices, but now researchers have demonstrated that a little water can help create ultra-dense storage systems for computers and electronics.

A team of experimentalists and theorists at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Harvard University has proposed a new and surprisingly effective means of stabilizing and controlling ferroelectricity in nanostructures: terminating their surfaces with fragments of water. Ferroelectrics are technologically important "smart" materials for many applications because they have local dipoles, which can switch up and down to encode and store information. The team's work is reported in the April issue of Nano Letters.

"It is astonishing to see that a single wire of even a few atoms across can act as a stable and switchable dipole memory element," Jonathan Spanier, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Drexel, said.

Spanier and his colleagues successfully demonstrated the benefits of using water to stabilize memory bits in segments of oxide nanowires that are only about 3 billionths of a meter wide.

full article

Now, I don't understand all of it but it has great potential for AI, cyborgs, and futuristic world settings. The human(oid) body is mostly water. What would happen if this technology and our bodies were combined? Holy Pin Cushion, Batman!

The Next Big Thing Is Small: Nanotechnology Could Lead To Radical Improvements For Space Exploration

When it comes to taking the next "giant leap" in space exploration, NASA is thinking small — really small.

In laboratories around the country, NASA is supporting the burgeoning science of nanotechnology. The basic idea is to learn to deal with matter at the atomic scale — to be able to control individual atoms and molecules well enough to design molecule-size machines, advanced electronics and "smart" materials.

If visionaries are right, nanotechnology could lead to robots you can hold on your fingertip, self-healing spacesuits, space elevators and other fantastic devices. Some of these things may take 20+ years to fully develop; others are taking shape in the laboratory today.

Thinking Small

Simply making things smaller has its advantages. Imagine, for example, if the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity could have been made as small as a beetle, and could scurry over rocks and gravel as a beetle can, sampling minerals and searching for clues to the history of water on Mars. Hundreds or thousands of these diminutive robots could have been sent in the same capsules that carried the two desk-size rovers, enabling scientists to explore much more of the planet's surface — and increasing the odds of stumbling across a fossilized Martian bacterium!

The article continues with the discussion of 'nanotubes'.

- have 100 times the tensile strength of steel, but only 1/6 the weight;
- are 40 times stronger than graphite fibers;
- conduct electricity better than copper;
- can be either conductors or semiconductors (like computer chips), depending on the arrangement of atoms;
- and are excellent conductors of heat.

Much of current nanotechnology research worldwide focuses on these nanotubes. Scientists have proposed using them for a wide range of applications: in the high-strength, low-weight cable needed for a space elevator; as molecular wires for nano-scale electronics; embedded in microprocessors to help siphon off heat; and as tiny rods and gears in nano-scale machines, just to name a few.

And for once, some logical uses for nanotechnology:

A chemical sensor they developed using nanotubes is scheduled to fly a demonstration mission into space aboard a Navy rocket next year. This tiny sensor can detect as little as a few parts per billion of specific chemicals–like toxic gases–making it useful for both space exploration and homeland defense. CNT has also developed a way to use nanotubes to cool the microprocessors in personal computers, a major challenge as CPUs get more and more powerful. This cooling technology has been licensed to a Santa Clara, California, start-up called Nanoconduction, and Intel has even expressed interest, Meyyappan says.

(full story)

In doing the recent research into Nanotechnology, I came across an image.

That is a dust mite. Those are gears made by nanotechnology.

It is hard to understand something that small being made by something just as small. Nanobots are not just a little diode or resistor. A nanobot is a little motor, a little moving gear that works with other little moving gears. They manipulate things on a molecular level. That means they can deal with a single cell and its contents. They can coat the threads within a thread within a thread with little barbs that keep dirt from sticking. (nanopants)

They (anything called 'nano') is so small they had to come up with their own measurement - a "nanometers." A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

Check out Earth & Sky's recent set of articles:

Nanotechnology
Nanotech 101
Nanotech Myths
How Much for Nanotechnology?
Nanotech Safety

I get an RSS feed from Slashdot and an article there led me to another.

Slashdot's Nanotech Protests Begins cited an article from Wired.com News

That headline is: When Nanopants Attack.

I laughed hysterically as Lorna considered calling the wacky ward. The article is packed full of information, which did, finally, sneak into my brain. That seepage started more ideas on that SF project I got on a back burner. The note file on that is growing, which is good.

Now, to integrate nanotechnology with Tesla…

Pleasant Morning Buzz: The Replicators Are Coming

Funny little article. Nanotechnology, especially of this kind, scares me.

And I recently saw the SG1 episodes that involved the Replicators.