US Nuclear Weapons Lab Discovers How To Suppress the Casimir Force

KentuckyFC writes "One of the frustrating problems with microelectromechanical (MEM) devices is that the machinery can sometimes stick fast, causing them to stop working. One of the culprits is the Casimir effect — an exotic force that pushes metallic sheets together when they are separated by tiny distances. Now physicists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have worked out and demonstrated how to suppress the Casimir force. The trick is to create a set of deep grooves and ridges in the surface of one sheet so that the other only comes close to the tips of the ridges. These tips have a much smaller surface area than the flat sheet and so generate much less force. That could help prevent stiction in future MEMs devices. But why would a nuclear weapons lab be interested? MEM devices are invulnerable to electromagnetic pulse weapons that fry transistor-based switches, and so could be used as on-off switches for nuclear devices."

Re:brilliant!

[NettiWelho]

reduction of surface area leads to reduction of effect. imagine that. duh. why didn't they try that sooner? that woulda been top on my list.

Then it is most unfortunate you didn't share this information with them years ago, asshole.

Re:Not Nuclear Weapons Lab

[Anonymous Coward]

You might as well say Stanford University is a place where they develop internet search engines, and General electric makes nuclear reactors.

Well, neither of those would be untrue.

Re:brilliant!

[stewsters]

I once had an similar idea about reducing the force of gravity on rockets. Basically make them with less mass, and as mass goes to zero then the force required to launch them into space also goes to zero. Genius.

Re:Thermionic valves also work

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Totally immune to EMP. Besides, we need people to magnify the Casimir effect if we're to ever get wormhole technology. And, trust me on this, you do NOT want an evil general on the other side to go around suppressing it when you're half-way through.

Plus, ICBMs controlled by valves just have a 'warmer' trajectory. It's hard to describe; but the flight path just isn't nearly as 'harsh' as semiconductor ICBMs.

Re:brilliant!

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, it is a INCREASE in the surface area.

not in the part (the 'pointy' bits) that's closest to the other (flat) surface...

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