A Riff from the Mesoscale?

bethanie writes: "From the New York Times: 'Cornell University physicists reported they had used a laser beam to pluck the strings of a tiny silicon guitar just 10 millionths of a meter long! Using the same kind of technology that etches the tiny wires and components onto computer chips, the researchers at Cornell's NanoScale Science and Technology Facility have also constructed a nanodrum from a crisscross diamond mesh and a nanoxylophone with tiny diamond bars. If nanomanufacturing comes of age, something as tiny as a nanodrum or nanoharp might be mass-produced for use as extremely sensitive detectors for ultra high-frequency waves. Scientists have recently demonstrated infinitesimal nanotube thermometers and nanobalances capable of weighing a single virus. All this may foreshadow a day when doctors use nanocapsules to carry medicines, a few molecules at a time, to precise locations in the body, and nanorobots to crawl through the bloodstream and repair cells.' Well, scientific advancements that can save humankind are all well and good, but the real question is: Did they play Stairway to Heaven?"

What they played

[Old Wolf]

Did they play Stairway to Heaven?

No, they couldn't find the right Page

</MONDAY_MORNING_HUMOUR>

Tom and Jerry reference

[Micro$will]

They played "Froggy went a courtin' he did ride c-c-c-c-c-c-crambone!", and when they broke a string they plucked it off of the nanocat.

linked

[bendsley]

this post was a link on FARK.com about a week ago.

Get some new material.

I can't wait...

[rekkanoryo]

for nanotech to become reality. That way we can become like the Borg with those nanoprobe things. You know, "You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile." Then Gene Roddenberry and his writers will have had a semi-accurate prediction of the future.

Re:I can't wait...

[Wintensis]

Or.... Imagine some bright lab boy dropping a decimal place in designing a nano-replicator! *glub glub glub* Grey Goo! [astrian.net]

or Black Goo(tm) (Grey Goo someone did on purpose).

NOT so Utopian.

Ok, ok - you can make arguments that PURE 'gray goo' scenerio being implausible, but much damage can still be done by rouge, or badly designed NanoReplicators (Replicator.NET).

Nanotechnology, like all technology, is not an unconditional good.

Miniature Instruments?

[Gothic_Walrus]

Nanoguitar, nanodrum, nanoharp...

What's next? Tiny robotic bands? Crappy minute singers that call themselves Micro Bolton?

I'm scared for our future...

Re: Miniature Instruments

[Black Parrot]

> Nanoguitar, nanodrum, nanoharp...

Think of the spam!

Groupies DO care about the size of your instrument!

Re:Miniature Instruments?

[HTH NE1]

Well the angels dancing on the heads of pins need something to dance to.

That guitar isn't pratical

[rritterson]

Doing a napkin style calculation, and assuming normal guitar strings vibrate at 440 hz (which they do), and assuming the silicon has similar properties as the bronze (which it probably doesn't)

f*lambda = v (for waves)

a guitar is about 1.5m long, and the lowest standing wave has wavelength 2*l, or 3m, thus the velocity of the guitar string is about 1320 meters/sec. Assuming the silicon vibrates as the same speed, lambda is now 20 microns, so the frequency is about 60 MHz!

Maybe Superman's dog can hear that

read the article

[dmiracle]

The article tells us the frequency of vibration as well as the range of human hearing. NYT Science writing always uses these analogies. Would a NYT audience respond well to a headline:

pulsed YAG laser excites VHF phonons in etched Si crystal

Maybe they would if we put "nano" in the title a few more times

Oops, I heard it again!

[orthogonal]

"[R]esearchers at Cornell's NanoScale Science and Technology Facility have... constructed a nanodrum.... All this may foreshadow a day when doctors use nanocapsules to carry medicines.... to precise locations in the body, and nanorobots to crawl through the bloodstream and repair cells."

"Mr. Jackson, we've finally discovered the cause of your tinnitus."

"Doc, you really've found out why my ears been ringing and I been so irritable all this last month?"

"Mr. Jackson, it appears that you've gotten a rock band lodged in your right ear. It's playing ads for the new Britney Spears come-back CD, "Oops, Grandma Did It Again (Saphic Style)"."

"Now Doc, howsa whole rock band playin' ads for some old rock star get in my ear? That don't make no sense."

"Science marches on, Mr. Jackson. It's a little thing called 'nano-tecnology'. You see, back in 2003, Cornell University made this little tiny drum and guitar set. Really tiny. And since then, well, let me explain, nano-hackers and spamers have marched on too...."

You know..

[NegativeK]

I don't think I've ever read "nano" so many times in one sitting.

Stairway to Heaven - apropos in more ways than one

[Quaelin PoD]

Carbon nanotubes and the idea of using lasers to do work both hearken to another up-and-coming scientific advancement destined to save humankind: the Space Elevator [liftwatch.org]!

Science Fiction to Science Fact

[pmz]

I seem to remember a movie about this called "Inner Space". However, imdb.com doesn't list it, so it must have never existed. I smell a conspiracy!