the Foresight Institute

Roland Piquepaille writes "NASA is testing a shape-shifting robot called "TETwalker" for tetrahedral walker, because it looks like a flexible pyramid. It has been tested in the lab and at the McMurdo station in Antarctica to test it under conditions more like those on Mars. Now, it is on the way to be — really — miniaturized by using micro- and nano-electro-mechanical systems. These robots will eventually join together to form "autonomous nanotechnology swarms" (ANTS). When it's done, in about thirty years, these nanotech swarms will "alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails." So in 2034, nanotechnology will land on Mars. Read more for other details and references about the TETwalker and the ANTS project."

PhysOrg is reporting that IBM Zurich is showing off its Millipede storage device at CeBIT. For those unfamiliar with this device it uses cantilever arms to read & write a polymer medium.

As the pits that the cantilevers read & write are ~10nm in diameter it is definitely a nanoscale device. The storage density is approximately 1 terabit per sq. inch. That capacity in that size implies that one should be able to fit the contents of a entire college education into a handheld device.

Roland Piquepaille writes "It's an antenna, it's a MEMS device, and it's a macroscopic quantum system. This antenna, made of 50 billion atoms, is so far the largest structure to display quantum mechanical movements. It's also the fastest device of its kind in the world, oscillating about 1.5 billion times per second. Such technology might soon be used in our cell phones. But more importantly, this device bridges classic and quantum physics. Such "mechanical/quantum mechanical hybrids could be used for quantum computing" in the future. Read more for other details, references and a picture showing different views of this world's fastest nanomechanical structure."

Ed. Note: This submission has been edited to correct misleading terms. See first comment.

Roland Piquepaille writes "This sounds almost too good to be true — at least for some time. Physicists from Boston University have fabricated nanomechanical switches which promise fantastic advances in data storage. Their nanodevices will have densities exceeding by orders of magnitude existing storage devices. They will deliver data at speeds in the megahertz (and possibly gigahertz) range, also exceeding by far the few hundred kilohertz of our current hard drives. And finally, they will only use some femtowatts of power each, leading to hard drives consuming maybe a million times less electricity than existing devices. So, where's the catch? Will we ever see hard drives built with these nanomechanical switches? Honestly, I don't know, but read more for other details and references."

Several people, including Roland and Patrick, have pointed out that physicists from Boston University have fabricated nanomechanical switches which promise significant advances in data storage densities (to much greater than 100GB/in²).

Roland Piquepaille writes "Recent developments in nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have typically used vibrating silicon rods so small that they oscillate at radio frequencies. But now, Cornell University researchers have replaced the silicon rod by a carbon nanotube. This new electromechanical oscillator might be capable of weighing a single atom. The oscillator consists "of a carbon nanotube from one to four nanometers in diameter and about one-and-a-half micrometers long, suspended between two electrodes above a conducting silicon plate." Such an oscillator, tunable from 3 to 200 MHz, could be used in future cell phones, which have to change frequently their operating frequencies. The only problem is that the current production of carbon nanotubes is too small for such a huge market. Read more for additional details and references."

Roland Piquepaille writes "Building computer chips which use light instead of electricity will be possible in a few years, thanks to the new techniques developed by two separate research teams from the MIT and Kyoto University. Both have built photonic crystals that can be manufactured using processes suited to mass production. Technology Research News says that "the techniques could be used to make smaller, more efficient communications devices, create optical memory and quantum computing and communications devices, develop new types of lasers and biological and chemical sensors, and could ultimately lead to all-optical computer processors." Please read this overview for more details and references about the two different approaches towards photonic chips, which measure only hundreds of nanometers — right now."

JamGrrl writes "This isn't exactly big news, but this article details many of the problems in getting MEMS to work — specifically, how do you lubercate a machine when the oil molecule itself is just too big? It turns out that alcohol is one useful candidate. An informative read."