Nanotech Breakthrough of the Decade

Those look like Nanotube gears, the building blocks for some larger mechanical device.

Reason I wan't to go to waterloo is because it's close to home(eg I don't have to leave Ontario)

I don't think they are gears, they could be. Mabey the hexyl was introduced to allow for hydrogen bonding or form polymers with ajacent hexyls. With hydrogen bonding and polymerization the nanotubes can be clung together in parralell forming strings of multiple CNTs that are tightly attached in a pattern. This will form very strong chains. That's what I think they are for.

I found this cool picture of CNTs.




Edit: Picture


[edit on 8/27/2005 by GoldEagle]

I can see a good application for such a design now, a super efficient heat sink.

Man isn't that an awesome sight.

EDIT: Also could you provide links to where you got the pictures please

[edit on 27-8-2005 by sardion2000]

It would make sense if you can attach the tubes together in parrallel, it will form a stronger structure. Instead of making CNT with multiple walls, just bind single walled ones together. Think of the polymers or hydrogen bonds to be like a glue to hold the tubes together. Having the bonding points at the tips would form weak points because the polymers or hydrogen bonds are far weaker then the CNTs themselves, it may also be difficult to place groups of anything at those points (tips) to my knowlage, better to have a continual chain of a single nanotube then multiple ones bonded with polymers at the tips.

That's the best answer I can give at the time.

[edit on 8/27/2005 by GoldEagle]

Interesting quote from this article

www.eurekalert.org...

"Rarely is a processing advance so elegantly simple that rapid commercialization seems possible, and rarely does such an advance so quickly enable diverse application demonstrations," said the article's corresponding author, Dr. Ray H. Baughman, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry and director of the UTD NanoTech Institute. "Synergistic aspects of our nanotube sheet and twisted yarn fabrication technologies likely will help accelerate the commercialization of both technologies, and UTD and CSIRO are working together with companies and government laboratories to bring both technologies to the marketplace."

Cool picture GoldEagle, is there a link or article to go with that?



[edit on 27-8-2005 by Frosty]

Imagine a small table top nano-factory that you shovel some dirt into and out pops a new Rolex or steak dinner. Now *TRY* to imagine any government or corporation on the planet actually allowing such a device to exist.

You see how the RIAA and MPAA are in a frenzy over people copying digital media. Now imagine every other corporation that produces physical goods joining them as people start to make copies of Ferraris and all the other stuff we use every day.

What will the pharmaceutical companies do when people first start to make copies of drugs and then later have the ability to heal any problem in the human body directly without needing drugs.

The oil companies won’t like a small device that sits in your yard with a solar cell on top that makes gas/oil out of elements it pulls out of the air.

A device that can build a computer or a watch could build a gun or a bomb. The governments won’t like that. What about when they become advanced enough to make a virus or bacteria? If they can do that what about making copy of a human? The religions of the world won’t like that (neither will Cindy Crawford).

Any such device would make money almost useless. It would be *NICE* to be able to build everything you need with the right elements, a blueprint and some energy. But it would take a massive revolution before it would be allowed to happen.

Any such device would make money almost useless. It would be *NICE* to be able to build everything you need with the right elements, a blueprint and some energy. But it would take a massive revolution before it would be allowed to happen.

People are working on it in secret I can assure you of that. No government in the world would dare to not try to be the first to achieve this technology. Imagine China or Russia getting this technology before the US or UK or wherever else. Not every country respects the same values that the USA establishment does. And there is a strong counter-culter that is very technically sophisticated, the RIAA and MPAA can't even disuade piracy and every effort to date has been made a mockery of by the hordes of geeks with no lives. Did you know that most of GE's Nanotech researchers are located mostly in India thusly bypassing any potential USA legal initiative to pre-emtively ban technology. The Venture Funds are doing enough already by just not funding the technology. The Foresight has prizes setup geared towards the creation of this technology, you wanna see it happen volunteer or donate(or better yet do like I'm doing and become a Nanomechanical Engineer )

[edit on 28-8-2005 by sardion2000]

[edit on 28-8-2005 by sardion2000]

Oh I agree with you, no doubt about it. It WILL happen. It will just be very messy for a while once the wrong people realize what it will mean to them and their bussiness.

I was just playing devil's advocate and pointing out the legal, social, and political problems that will need to be overcome. I'm sure that there will be open-source "blueprints" people will use to assemble their stuff. They would most likely be better than the corporate versions of the same items since they will be designed to be the best, not the cheapest to manufacture.

Speaking of messy business... Nanotech will be used to construct things completely out of hydrogen and Carbon. This will do away with any needs of other naturals minerals. Without need for them, there will be no more mining. No more mining means less land degradation and lost jobs. Nanotech is going to take away numerous amount of jobs, but it is still well worth it.

Your going to have to check the image properties for that picture. I had the URL for it lying around from the space elevator debate. It's not really that important, it's just a picyure of CNTs just to show an example of there configuration.

I know there is another thread somewhere here on ATS with this link it because that's were I came across it, but now I can't find it

www.wired.com...


I think what Gemesis and Apollo Diamonds are doing with injecting boron into the diamond lattice as it's being created will yield some impressive results on the semiconductor front in time I wonder if this carbon nanotube and diamond method will end up being the preferred method of creating diamond semiconductors?

On a side note I really enjoyed the above Wired article because of the parts that talk about how the DeBeers oligarchs I mean executives have their panties in a real bunch from what Gemesis and Apollo are trying to do

Well... I have 5 whole minutes to check here on ATS all the happenings. I have just completed my Nanotechnology paper for my class, so once I have the time I may post it here. The only problem I have with this paper is that I had to change it so that it would be a persuasive essay. So it's not quite a scientific paper, but more of a paper of why Nanotechnology will affect every human being on this Earth whether they like it or not. If anyone would like me to post, just send me a U2U or something and I'll post it next time I get a chance to get on here.

This reminds me a a great computer game I use to play... Total Anihilation... the construction bots would use nanotech to build everything.