Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire

Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire 211

Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:36PM from the soon-will-be-in-vending-machines-for-a-nickel dept.

geekman writes "NASA is paying Rice University $11 million to build a prototype quantum wire that can conduct electricity 10 times better than traditional copper cables at one-sixth the weight. Rice has four years to build a one-meter-long quantum wire, which will be made out of carbon nanotubes. Seems like a lot of money for a little wire, but then again, all the rocket scientists at Los Alamos have only ever been able to put together a four-centimeter nanotube."

Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire

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The unfortunate thing about quantum wires... (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:37PM (#12366843)

Is that they never seem to be where you left them. Although on a good day you'll end up with more than you started with depending on what universe you're in.

Seems like a lot of money for a little wire, (Score:5, Funny)

by scottv67 ( 731709 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:38PM (#12366847)

Seems like a lot of money for a little wire,

Yeah, but it's still cheaper than Monster Cable.

;^)

How long... (Score:5, Funny)

by Evanisincontrol ( 830057 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:39PM (#12366855)

How long until some eccentric billionaire pays Rice to wire his entire house with that stuff?

"My house is iced out with quantam wiring, biatch. Or something. Bling bling."

Will no one think of the birdies (Score:5, Funny)

by Timesprout ( 579035 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:42PM (#12366888)

how are they supposed to land on quantum power lines!!

Re:How long... (Score:5, Funny)

by nebaz ( 453974 ) * writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:42PM (#12366892)

So if you use twisted pair quantum wiring for broadband, and setup vpn, would that be quantum tunneling? (Sorry) :-)

Thank god for Condi (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:43PM (#12366896)

Condi Rice can build anything, she is one of the jewels in Bush's hat.

Don't tell me you didn't misread the title at first either!

I don't know.. (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:45PM (#12366921)

Would it still be a meter after I observed it?

uh oh (Score:5, Funny)

by fred fleenblat ( 463628 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:46PM (#12366927) Homepage

carbon nanotubes...that's awfully similar to the Inanimate Carbon Rod.

Get it right (Score:5, Funny)

by Tiger4 ( 840741 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:46PM (#12366928)

" all the rocket scientists at Los Alamos have only ever been able to put together a four-centimeter nanotube."
They're nuclear scientists, not rocket scientists, dammit. Give'em a break!

actually I didn't (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:49PM (#12366947)

But then again, that's because the title didn't involve any outlandish or false claims against anybody.

Rice contracted WTF? (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @08:50PM (#12366954)

Crap...
I thought NASA had contracted Condolezza Rice to build a quantum wire for a top secret mission or something like that...

A problem of scale... (Score:5, Funny)

by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @09:06PM (#12367119)

Let's just hope the kids at Rice don't get confused and wind up making a ridiculously large model [slashdot.org] of a quantum wire instead. :P

Re:How long... (Score:5, Funny)

by Dr. GeneMachine ( 720233 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @09:11PM (#12367154)

Wouldn't that give problems with latency and response times? I mean, let's say, you do a ping. It gives you the round-trip time. Now you know how fast your packet is - which means you do not know any longer where it is. Would that be a dropped packet? How are you supposed to ping on your quantum tunneling thingmabob anyway??
Ah, newfangled codswallop! When we were young, we pushed carts full of punched cards from the terminal to the mainframe and back! Uphill both ways!! And we liked it!!!

Sheesh, shoulda looked in Audiophile (Score:4, Funny)

by SteeldrivingJon ( 842919 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @09:12PM (#12367156) Homepage Journal

I'm sure there's some outfit in Audiophile magazine that will sell you "quantum wire".

I hear it gives you really crisp trebles.

Re:The real question is.. (Score:2, Funny)

by Masami Eiri ( 617825 ) writes: <[moc.liamg] [ta] [vaw.niarb]> on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @09:34PM (#12367305) Journal

They strangle the cat... maybe. Or maybe the cat knits them into a gas mask to protect him against the gas. Or maybe the gas reacts with them and creates a quantumn explosion...
Damn you Schrodinger!

Re:Space elevator just a few months away! (Score:5, Funny)

by HermanAB ( 661181 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @10:02PM (#12367525)

Actually, it is easy to get into space. You just need to stand still and let the earth move away from you.

Re:How long... (Score:5, Funny)

by NanoGator ( 522640 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @10:25PM (#12367731) Homepage Journal

" (yup that joke's as bad as I thought)."

Grrr that's because you changed the punchline by observing it!

Re:How long... (Score:2, Funny)

by SamBeckett ( 96685 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @10:26PM (#12367736)

Leave me out of this.

Re:More poorly spent money... (Score:3, Funny)

by mattmatt ( 855592 ) writes: on Wednesday April 27, 2005 @10:46PM (#12367933)

(the capped ends are two halves of a fullerene, iirc)

Halferenes?

even BETTER (Score:2, Funny)

by hoyboy9 ( 648196 ) writes: on Thursday April 28, 2005 @01:15AM (#12368528)

I'm a current Rice student, and one of the running jokes about all this nanotech stuff here on campus came from our student newspaper writers. Take two bucky balls, and one long nanotube, and fuse them together with a few bonds and you get: PHUCTANE All the students in orgo were completely phuc'ed after that.

This is NASA, of course they care about WEIGHT... (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Thursday April 28, 2005 @01:32AM (#12368611)

You know, NASA? The organization that shoots things into SPACE?

But seriously, there are lots of useful applications for this where using superconducting materials instead would be inconvenient.

Re:The unfortunate thing about quantum wires... (Score:3, Funny)

by smokeslikeapoet ( 598750 ) writes: <[wfpearson] [at] [gmail.com]> on Thursday April 28, 2005 @03:05AM (#12369013) Homepage Journal

One thing's for sure, you know exactly where it is not.

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Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire 211

Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire More Login

Rice Contracted to Provide NASA's Quantum Wire

The unfortunate thing about quantum wires... (Score:5, Funny)

Seems like a lot of money for a little wire, (Score:5, Funny)

How long... (Score:5, Funny)

Will no one think of the birdies (Score:5, Funny)

Re:How long... (Score:5, Funny)

Thank god for Condi (Score:5, Funny)

I don't know.. (Score:1, Funny)

uh oh (Score:5, Funny)

Get it right (Score:5, Funny)

actually I didn't (Score:1, Funny)

Rice contracted WTF? (Score:1, Funny)

A problem of scale... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:How long... (Score:5, Funny)

Sheesh, shoulda looked in Audiophile (Score:4, Funny)

Re:The real question is.. (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Space elevator just a few months away! (Score:5, Funny)

Re:How long... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:How long... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:More poorly spent money... (Score:3, Funny)

even BETTER (Score:2, Funny)

This is NASA, of course they care about WEIGHT... (Score:1, Funny)

Re:The unfortunate thing about quantum wires... (Score:3, Funny)

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