Diamond nanothread visualization
Scientists have discovered how to produce ultra-thin “diamond nanothreads” that promise extraordinary properties, including strength and stiffness greater than that of today’s strongest nanotubes and polymers.
Continue reading… “Scientists create ultra-thin ‘diamond nanothreads,’ world’s strongest material”
Nearly all technological advances in the past century or more have depended on our ability to produce and manipulate the vast variety of materials that nature has given us. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of electronics. From a smorgasbord of semiconductors, polymers, and metals, we’ve been able to create a dazzling array of circuitry that now underpins pretty much every aspect of modern life.
Continue reading… “Making a better invisibility cloak with lasers”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0[/youtube]
The world’s smallest movie made by IBM Research has carbon monoxide atoms being moved around on a copper surface with a scanning tunneling microscope. The 250-frame stop-motion film, entitled “A Boy and His Atom,” uses discrete atoms to draw a stick-figure-like boy that bounces on a trampoline and plays catch with an individual atom “ball.”
Continue reading… “IBM makes world’s smallest movie ever”
When heated atoms can move with different levels of energy, from low to high. With positive temperatures (blue), atoms more likely occupy low-energy states than high-energy states, while the opposite is true for negative temperatures (red).
The coldest temperature possible is most often thought to be absolute zero. Researchers have now shown they can achieve even lower temperatures for a strange realm of “negative temperatures.”
Continue reading… “Researchers achieve temperatures colder than absolute zero”
Miniaturized information storage in atomic-scale antiferromagnets. The binary representation of the letter ‘S’ (01010011) was stored in the Neel states of eight iron atom arrays.
After five years of work, IBM announced on Thursday that its researchers have been able to reduce from about one million to 12 the number of atoms required to create a bit of data. (video)
Continue reading… “IBM creates a bit of data using only 12 iron atoms”
Explosions in deep space bring heavy atoms into existence.
Two new experimental facilities, billed as the successors to the Large Hadron Collider, will recreate the supernova explosions that produced most of the elements that make up our world.
A positioner centers the target inside the target chamber and serves as a reference to align the laser beams.
“Creating a miniature star on Earth” is the goal of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), home to the world’s largest and highest-energy laser in Livermore, California. On September 29th, 2010, the NIF completed its first integrated ignition experiment, where it focused its 192 lasers on a small cylinder housing a tiny frozen capsule containing hydrogen fuel, briefly bombarding it with 1 megajoule of laser energy. (Pics)
Continue reading… “National Ignition Facility Houses the World’s Largest and Most Powerful Laser”
In 1993, Charlie Bennett at IBM’s Watson Research Center in New York State and a few pals showed how to transmit quantum information from one point in space to another without traversing the intervening space…
Continue reading… “Physicist Discovers How to Teleport Energy”
A bright ribbon of hydrogen atoms marks the edge of the solar system
A bright ribbon of hydrogen atoms marks the edge of the solar system, where the Sun’s wind meets emissions from the rest of the galaxy, researchers reported. They used telescopes aboard the orbiting Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft or IBEX to look toward the heliopause, which is the boundary where solar wind meets galactic wind at the edge of the solar system beyond Pluto.
Continue reading… “Bright Ribbon Of Hydrogen Found At Edge Of Solar System”
It could be the perfect nuclear fuel. It generates energy via laser-enabled fusion. It has no radioactive byproducts. Has a group of Swedish researchers found the ultimate form of renewable energy for the 21st century?
Continue reading… “Ultra-Dense Fuel Created That May Be The Ultimate Form Of Renewable Energy”
Perfect timekeeping has taken a step closer to reality after scientists developed a clock that loses just a second every 300 million years.
Continue reading… “Scientists Develop World’s Most Accurate Clock”
You are looking at 1301 fluorescent bulbs planted in an English farm, powered entirely by electrical fields generated by the power lines that float in curves over the top of this field. (PIcs)
Continue reading… “‘FIELD’ of Fluorescent Bulbs Powered By Ambient Electricity”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.