Hip-Hop Atoms
Roland Piquepaille writes "For the first time, a team of physicists of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has controlled "the movement of a single atom back and forth between neighboring locations on a crystal." This will allow to build nanoscale devices atom by atom. Not happy enough with this technological breakthrough, the NIST team also discovered that the atoms were 'noisy' when moving on the crystal surface. They converted the electronic signals emitted by the atoms into audio ones and they were quite surprised to hear something similar to a 'hip-hop' musician's rhythmic 'scratching'. The audio files also helped the team to know in real time that atoms have moved into desired positions. Read more for pictures and references or jump here to listen to the hip-hop atoms (Real Player necessary, 2 minutes and 40 seconds)."
September 18th, 2004 at 8:12 AM
There's less advance here than meets the eye
This work is novel in a minor way. Dan Rugar's team at IBM has previously used sound to monitor and control the movement of Co on Cu to desired lattice locations in building "Atomic corrals".
The advance in the NIST work is to vary the current fed into the Co atom so that it displays varying characteristics as it jumps stochastically between two nearby lattice locations.
This report is more an example of the ignorance of the press than a bold new advance in molecular nanotechnology.
September 18th, 2004 at 10:13 AM
World's First " Atomic Switch " 6 years ago
The thieves of fiction are at it again trying to take credit for others work.
http://www.physorg.com/news785.html
http://www.nano-tsunami.com/
http://www.theharrowgroup.com/articles/20040830/20 040830.htm#_Toc81193171
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/in dex.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040914005489& newsLang=en
http://www.nanonewsnet.com/index.php
http://www.nanonewsnet.com/index.php?module=pagese tter&func=viewpub&tid=4&pid=6
http://www.nanonewsnet.com/index.php?module=pagese tter&func=viewpub&tid=4&pid=5
http://nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=1037
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040914/145489_1.html
August 10th, 2007 at 10:20 PM
Wow that is amazing. Atoms scratching hip hop sounds. Let me get my atomic Grillz on!