An exciting headline in this morning's Nature Science Update:
Scientists have built an electric rotor 2,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Its gold blade is 300 millionths of a millimetre long. This sits atop an axle made from a multiwalled carbon nanotube - a molecule structured much like a leek. Gold electrodes at either end of the axle lash the device to a silicon chip[1.]
To think it was only a week ago that I was writing about whether the nanotechnology community needs to adopt a BHAG. The other night, I had the honor of talking to Christine Peterson, President of the Foresight Institute, and I asked her for her thoughts about a big, hairy, audacious goal for nanotechnology. Her take on it was that, whether an official goal is set or net, the big accomplishments are coming sooner or later.*
It just looks like this one came a little sooner. So, what are the implications of this development?
Zettl's nanotube rotor is easy to drive and can operate at great speed, over a wide range of temperature and chemical conditions - even in a vacuum. This lends it to a wide range of applications. Using the gold rotor blade as a mirror to direct and switch light signals rapidly is one possibility. Detecting the presence of certain chemicals attached to its blade by monitoring its resonant rotational speed is another.
This sounds pretty useful to me. Alex Zettl, who designed this rotor, says that he expects to be surprised by the kinds of applications it will soon be put to. I suspect he's right about that.
Via GeekPress
*I'll be publishing a complete interview with Ms. Peterson around the middle of next month. So keep watching this space.
UPDATES: I did some re-thinking as to whether this development, while definitely important, is really Big, Hairy, and Audacious. And here's another little and unassuming, yet still important, development.
Posted by Phil at July 24, 2003 09:12 AM
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