Micro Tetris

Jeroen writes "Students from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam used a so-called 'optical trap' to construct a version of Tetris that measures 25 x 20 micrometers. Blocks are constructed from tiny glass beads and all the action takes place in a waterdrop under a microscope. Considering the equipment needed, this must not only be the smallest, but also the most expensive Tetris clone around. A short description and a movie can be found here."

Uh-huh

[(trb001)]

I'm sure this is one of those discoveries where someone said "Oh, neat!" and 6 months/1 year from now we'll have cured cancer based on it. But I can't help but think, right now, "Why?"

--trb

Re:Uh-huh

[Myco]

I bet you thought you were joking about the cancer thing, but check this [eweek.org] out.

Re:Uh-huh

[Directrix1]

And those idiots on TV say that 'Plastics make it happen' bah. Its glass microspheres that make it happen.

Re:Uh-huh

[p3d0]

Oh get off it. What did you do today toward curing cancer?

If women have more...

[TheJZA]

If women have more language processing power, they why the F, my x-gf dunno jack of C and Python....???

Not a bad troll.

[Lendrick]

Well, this is cool, I'll give you that. Who would have thought that a video game could be built inside a water droplet, small enough to require an electron microscope just to play! Clearly, there is some interesting research happening over in Holland.

Nice opening, sounds pretty reasonable.

But I'm a little concerned about the "expensive" part. For those who aren't familiar with the Dutch language, I can tell you that "vrije" (as in "Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit") means "free." That is, it's a university without tuition, funded by socialist tax policies (this is very common in Europe).

Believable, possibly true. If it's actually false, you've made a fairly safe assumption that most people aren't going to look that up and verify it themselves.

My concern, then, is that taxpayer money (albeit that of Dutchmen) is being squandled on playing video games through binoculars.

Not bad at all. Leave it to the people who reply to your post to point out your failure to understand that the tetris game was just a proof of concept of some incredible miniaturization technology, as opposed to just a video game.

You might want to ignore this, thinking that it couldn't possible affect any of us, here in the USA. But remember that none of those countries have any kind of military power or weapons, so they have to rely on us to protect them.

Very good. By implying that American taxpayers are indirectly funding their highly expensive video games, you're smoothly transitioning into a ridiculous assertion, while maintaining the appearence of reason.

While we spend billions a year developing weapons that protect their easy lives of cheese and pornography, they waste their euros playing with the world's tiniest joystick.

Here's where you falter. The "cheese and pornography" bit is a rude stereotype, which tears down most of the work you've done toward building the belief that you're a thoughtful individual with an opinion worthy of consideration.

It's disgraceful to Science, and we should not tolerate it.

Not too bad, but a bit too strong in comparison to your intro.

Overall grade: B

You were doing pretty well up to the cheese and porno bit. The real trick is to be inflammatory while maintaining the appearance of courtesy, which you didn't quite pull off here. Keep at it!

Re:Not a bad troll.

[TheGreenLantern]

He should recieve bonus points for working the word "socialist" into it IMO.

Re:Not a bad troll.

[Lord_Of_The_Beer]

Wow

Very impressive.

I stopped reading right around where it was implied that the rest of the world is powerless to defend themselves, but Kudos to you for going all the way.

Are you planing to do this to every troll on Slashdot, or is this more of a hobby?

Re:another victory for Science?

[tsa]

Why is this a flamebait? I laughed my head off!

That's completely wrong

[stardeep]

For those who aren't familiar with the Dutch language, I can tell you that "vrije" (as in "Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit") means "free." That is, it's a university without tuition, funded by socialist tax policies (this is very common in Europe).

You couldn't be further from the truth: the "vrije" in "Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam" (that's what it's called) in fact reflects its historical beginnings as a break-away Protestant university, unfettered by curricular demands imposed by the government.

Okay...

[DonFinch]

I'll be impressed when they do adventure...

Re:Okay...

[labtec6]

I'm looking forward to the porting of DOOM [slashdot.org] to their microscope!

Bless you!

[Trusty Penfold]

Watch the movie until the end. What happened? Did the player sneeze?

Re:Bless you!

[Joost van Mameren]

If you pay close attention, you'll see that the reservoir of beads on the left is runs out. We introduced a new reason for 'game over' for this. What you see is the switching off of the laser that holds the beads, after which the beads continue their everyday life: diffusing around in the surrounding water.

Sneezing is not enough to accomplish this effect; however, if you bang against the microscope that will be very visible.
(This is a note from one of the makers.)

Yes, but,

[3-State Bit]

is this version NP-hard? [slashdot.org]

Also: What if you sneeze?

Those Euro's sure are crafty.

[CTD]

They take a powerful instrument and make a game out of it. Next week we will discover that someone did a porno stick figure with the same technology after hours.

It's almost a natural progression. Develop technology. Make game. Make porn.

Factor in the European influence and you have a bonafide gurantee of porn right?

Re:Those Euro's sure are crafty.

[Idolatre]

that's better than
1) Develop new technology
2) Make weapon with new technology
3) ???
4) Blood and dead bodies everywhere!

If you want the videos

[inerte]

But don't want to /. the site or it is already Slashdotted, it's a good time to test an application I've seen here [slashdot.org], Shareaza and the so called "Gnutella 2".

If you have Shareaza, simply click here [magnet].

Or just copy and paste:

magnet:?xt=urn:bitprint:J3WTV5XMF2RG2F4V46WPXBYO O7 F3YHGQ.ICRIWNC3PTCUW7BUHYJRQJQO6PUUAXHYWHTP7YQ&dn= tetris_divx5.02.avi&xs=http%3A//200.158.5.243%3A63 46/uri-res/N2R%3Furn%3Asha1%3AJ3WTV5XMF2RG2F4V46WP XBYOO7F3YHGQ

Get rid of the TM and you're A-OK

[yerricde]

Or is that blatant theft of intellectual property?

Unless the Netherlands recognizes a patent on falling tetramino games that the United States doesn't, the only government-granted monopoly that encumbers a falling tetramino game developed based on observation of the behavior of Tetris products is the trademark on "TETRIS" [everything2.com]. Once the students remove any association with the Tetris brand, they are in the clear.

Re:Get rid of the TM and you're A-OK

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Interesting. Thanks.

glass microspheres

[GigsVT]

Glass microspheres are fun to play with. You can order them from many places online. They sometimes act in surprising ways.

An example If you pour some on a glass of water (they float), they form a skin on top of the water.. you can then stick your finger down into the water, and withdraw it without your finger getting wet.

Mirror

[RudeDude]

Tetris (divx) [mrhostbot.com]
Tetris (rm) [mrhostbot.com]

Mirror provided by Mr HOSTBOT [mrhostbot.com]

Slashdot indicator

[bheilig]

Check out the statistics page [nedstatbasic.net] for the site. What's that big spike around the 8th of November? (insert maniacal laugh)

By reading this post you have agreed to my EULA. Please send check or money order to...

Wow

[JohnLi]

I'm drunk, but that is one of the neatest things i've ever seen!!