Nanothermometer Withstands Heat 24
StyleChief writes "Technology Review reports that researchers from the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) have fashioned nano thermometers from a magnesium oxide nanotube filled with liquid gallium. The tiny thermometers are between 20 and 60 nanometers thick, or about one hundredth the diameter of a red blood cell."
Interesting (Score:3, Funny)
But more importantly, does it measure heat?
Re:Interesting (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
Worlds Smallest Rectal Thermometer (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Worlds Smallest Rectal Thermometer (Score:1)
Re:Worlds Smallest Rectal Thermometer (Score:1)
Re:Worlds Smallest Rectal Thermometer (Score:3, Funny)
Could solve a long-standing hardware problem (Score:5, Informative)
If these could actually be embedded radially about the platters, this kind of thermal differential failure could be detected. While this wouldn't solve the warping problem, it would at least cue the drive that it should run at a slower RPM and fire off non-stop SMART warnings to the system administrator, warning of catastrophe months or even a year ahead, instead of the current very short mechanical warning predictions which SMART-enabled devices offer.
Re:Could solve a long-standing hardware problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Old story... (Score:1)
Well! (Score:2)
Applications in microprocessors? (Score:5, Insightful)
A couple of weeks ago, there was a spate of Slashdot articles that addressed novel technologies for delaying the end of Moore's (so-called) Law. A diamond substrate [slashdot.org] was one way to get past thermal issues, but even then we'll still want more more MORE.
What if a super-high-end chip came with a built-in layers of heat-detecting nanothermometers? Instead of heat in one area shutting down the entire chip, the chip could selectively slow down processing in the area with the heat problems. You could actually end up with a self-adjusting chip that automatically overcomes the inevitable variations in the fab process for a faster average speed in the end product.
The disadvantage would be that you might not get 100% reproducible speed results. A benchmark test that hits the floating-point unit hard may slow down due to heat, while integer arithmetic is unaffected.
Why so complicated? (Score:4, Informative)
And you still have to build interface hardware/circuitry to read the tiny things. Why can't they just keep it simple and bond two dissimilar metals together to make a thermocouple junction? Thermocouples have a wide temperature range, too.
But how accurate is it? (Score:1)
Internal monitoring devices. (Score:5, Interesting)
But that's beside my point. I'm sure many of you will already have thought about this, but it is relevant, nonetheless. Consider medical thermometers today. They are placed in all sorts of places in order to get a reading of external temperature, but for early detection of viruses (characterised by an increase in body temperature as the body attempts to heat the virus to the point of breaking down) you need a good accurate reading of temperature and it would be more useful to be able to find internal temperature than internal temperature. The instrument would need to be sensitive aswell and a healthy range of precise temperatures needed for that specific person so a change can be detected.
With today's advancement in miniaturised technology, it would be possible to engineer these tiny thermometers, stated as being a hundredth of the size of a red blood cell, with a signal transmitter attached. Something harmless like a radio wave (although that would degrade over distance) every minute could be attached to the thermometer in order to make a tiny internal thermometer which travels in th blood stream and doesn't affect the body adversely from within, providing it is the right size and shape. In this way, everyone's temperatures could be monitored from central station in medical centres. Sound expenive, but for those hypocondriacs with money, it would both put their mind at rest and give them a better medical coverage for early dtection of things such as viral infection.
In actuality, such a device would need to obtain its energy from the blood in some way. Alcohol might not be socially acceptable (I know I don't drink) and perhaps combustion of oxygen and glucose in the blood would increase the temperature next to the thermometer, assuming this time combustion unit, transmitter and thermometer are part of the same unit. Size, as I see it, wouldn't be a problem though. The thermometer is less than a hundredth od the size of a red blood cell and the entire unit could be the same size as a red blood cell with absolutely no problem for the blood, except in the event of a blood clot.
In thinking, this could lead the way to pioneering technology in the field of medical nonotechnology. Perhaps blood clots in the future will be dealt with by tiny devices in the bloodstream. In any case, monitoring of human being's health at all times is a must have for the faroff contnuation of a good health system of the future.