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IBM researchers make world's smallest movie using atoms (w/ video) - 0 views

  • Scientists from IBM
  • unveiled the world's smallest movie, made with one of the tiniest elements in the universe: atoms
  • Named "A Boy and His Atom," the Guinness World Records -verified movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action.
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  • This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world while opening up a dialogue with students and others on the new frontiers of math and science
  • In order to make the movie, the atoms were moved with an IBM-invented scanning tunneling microscope
  • weighs two tons, operates at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface over 100 million times
  • IBM Research lab one of the few places in the world where atoms can be moved with such precision.
  • Remotely operated on a standard computer, IBM researchers used the microscope to control a super-sharp needle along a copper surface to "feel" atoms
  • Only 1 nanometer away from the surface, which is a billionth of a meter in distance, the needle can physically attract atoms and molecules on the surface and thus pull them to a precisely specified location on the surface
  • moving atom makes a unique sound that is critical feedback in determining how many positions it's actually moved
  • scientists rendered still images of the individually arranged atoms, resulting in 242 single frames
  • the same team of IBM researchers who made this movie also recently created the world's smallest magnetic bit. They were the first to answer the question of how many atoms it takes to reliably store one bit of magnetic information: 12.
  • it takes roughly 1 million atoms to store a bit of data on a modern computer or electronic device
  • atomic memory could one day store all of the movies ever made in a device the size of a fingernail.
Mars Base

Printable 'bionic' ear melds electronics and biology - 0 views

  • Scientists at Princeton University used off-the-shelf printing tools to create a functional ear that can "hear" radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability
  • primary purpose was to explore an efficient and versatile means to merge electronics with tissue
  • used 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term a bionic ear.
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  • Previously, researchers have suggested some strategies
  • That typically happens between a 2D sheet of electronics and a surface of the tissue
  • our work suggests a new approach—to build and grow the biology up with the electronics synergistically and in a 3D interwoven format
  • Last year, a research effort
  • resulted in the development of a "tattoo" made up of a biological sensor and antenna that can be affixed to the surface of a tooth
  • This project, however, is the team's first effort to create a fully functional organ: one that not only replicates a human ability, but extends it using embedded electronics
  • Creating organs using 3D printers is a recent advance; several groups have reported using the technology for this purpose in the past few months
  • this is the first time that researchers have demonstrated that 3D printing is a convenient strategy to interweave tissue with electronics
  • Ear reconstruction "remains one of the most difficult problems in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery
  • the team turned to a manufacturing approach called 3D printing
  • The finished ear consists of a coiled antenna inside a cartilage structure
  • Two wires lead from the base of the ear and wind around a helical "cochlea" – the part of the ear that senses sound – which can connect to electrodes
  • further work and extensive testing would need to be done before the technology could be used on a patient
  • the ear in principle could be used to restore or enhance human hearing.
  • electrical signals produced by the ear could be connected to a patient's nerve endings, similar to a hearing aid
  • The current system receives radio waves, but he said the research team plans to incorporate other materials, such as pressure-sensitive electronic sensors, to enable the ear to register acoustic sounds
  • researchers used an ordinary 3D printer to combine a matrix of hydrogel and calf cells with silver nanoparticles that form an antenna. The calf cells later develop into cartilage
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Mars Rover Opportunity Back in Action After Glitch | Mars Solar Conjunction | Space.com - 0 views

  • Mars rover Opportunity has overcome a glitch that put the robot into standby mode late last month
  • ortunity apparently put itself into standby automode — in which it maintains power balance but waits for instructions from the ground — on April 22, after sensing a problem during a routine camera check, mission officials said.
  • rover's handlers didn't notice the problem until April 27, when Opportunity got back in touch after a nearly three-week communications moratorium
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  • Opportunity's controllers prepared a new set of commands on April 29 designed to get things back to normal, and the fix has apparently worked
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NASA - The Day NASA's Fermi Dodged a 1.5-ton Bullet - 0 views

  • the U.S. Space Surveillance Network continued keeping tabs on Cosmos 1805 and every other artificial object larger than 4 inches across in Earth orbit. Of the 17,000 objects currently tracked, only about 7 percent are active satellites.
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