Moving Water Molecules By Light 96
Roland Piquepaille writes "An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) has discovered a new nanotechnology effect, the ability of moving water molecules by light. This is a far better way than current methods such as damaging electric fields and opens the way to a new class of microfluidic devices used in analytical chemistry and for pharmaceutical research. For example, this makes possible to design a device that can move drugs dissolved in water, or droplets of water and samples that need to be tested for environmental or biochemical analyses. Please read this overview for more details and references, plus an image of two water drops illuminated with a fluorescent dye and sitting respectively on a nanowire surface and on a flat surface."
Re:Sigh (Score:0, Insightful)
Me: "I can't crack this problem. I get this partial differential equation and it looks really hairy."
Lecturer: "Well, you're making it too complex from the start. As a first approximation you should approximate that the intensity is linearly proportional to x..."
Me: "Hey, wait a minute. Where in the problem does it say so?"
Lecturer: "It doesn't say so anywhere. That's what us physicists do. If the mathematics gets too hard, try a simpler physical model. Use your imagination!"
Me: *sigh* "And physics is supposed to be a hard science"
While nanotechnology is neat... (Score:1, Insightful)
Einstein agonized over the ramifications of his research into the atom far too late. We can already see the writing on the wall with nanotech -- perhaps it should be considered that the threat is greater than the promise?
Re:While nanotechnology is neat... (Score:4, Insightful)
1. It will eventually get discovered. Could we have ignored radar/gunpowder/pointy sticks inventions for this long?
2. No matter how long you think of something or plan something out, there will be someone who comes up with a flaw in your plans. Think bugs in software or man tampering with nature.
Re:While nanotechnology is neat... (Score:4, Insightful)
The atomic race was based entirely on this. Who will get the bomb first? Those in charge on either side did not have the luxury of sitting back and saying "Maybe we shouldn't" because the other side might succeed before them.
Look at today and how many countries can produce the bomb. Most of them got the know-how independently from each other. And the US is running around trying to control it from getting out of hand.
Re:Please stop (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice, but how about separating into H2 + O (Score:3, Insightful)