The World's Smallest Car 220
starexplorer writes "Start your Nano-engines? LiveScience.com is reporting that researchers at Rice University have designed the world's smallest car that is no more than 4 nanometers across. It has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs. Why do it? The team wants to build a fleet of nanotrucks to carry atoms and molecules around minature factories." So it's not exactly self-powered, but it rolls. It's a start!
Good idea, too small for me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good idea, too small for me (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Good idea, too small for me (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good idea, too small for me (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Good idea, too small for me (Score:2)
Re:Good idea, too small for me (Score:2)
Heh. (Score:1)
Re:Heh. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Heh. (Score:2, Funny)
"Heh" is right. This is just hype... (Score:2)
Only 4 nanometers across... (Score:5, Funny)
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
Compact car (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Compact car (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Compact car (Score:5, Funny)
You mean it's not an instruction. Whoops.
all good (Score:1, Redundant)
Rice U? (Score:1)
Re:Rice U? (Score:5, Funny)
Sensationalist journalism (Score:5, Insightful)
It's called a wagon.
Doesn't sound as cool, does it? But that's what it is, isn't it?
Rechargable nanomotors that don't break - that's what we need for this kind of thing. Its the holy grail for nanotech right now.
If you don't avoid all references to objects that move under their own power (and you're talking about nanotech), then you're sensationalizing the news. Its like saying "Fusion done in cold!" when you mean that someone built a fusion laser system in Anarctica. Obviously cold means something specific when its that close to the word "Fusion."
Keep up the sensationalism, and you can't get the point across when you come across something that's actually fantastic.
Re:Sensationalist journalism (Score:2)
Re:Sensationalist journalism (Score:3, Funny)
*ba-dum-dum-pshh*
Re:Sensationalist journalism (Score:2, Informative)
world's smallest cart. (Score:2)
Re:Sensationalist journalism (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, the terms are rather blurred.
For example, railroad dining cars are not self-powered, station wagons have an engine, and covered wagons had beds (or, at least, bedding).
One of the definitions of "car", from dictionary.com [reference.com], is "4-wheeled motor vehicle; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine".
Note the word "usually".
By stretching this definition, the "motor" could
Re:Sensationalist journalism (Score:2)
Looks more like a skateboard to me.
Re:Sensationalist journalism (Score:2)
Hey, another VIC-20 fan!!!
Re:Rice U? (Score:2)
We'll get there by getting lots of little pieces of the puzzle. Eventually we'll have all the pieces and be able to use nano technology to do Cool Stuff(tm).
This is just one piece of that puzzle.
Re:Rice U? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm too lazy to google for it, but there's a company selling a nanomotor coated window glass for office buildings. You can buy it today.
The idea is that the tiny motors rotate when powered by the sun. When the glass is dirty (spots from the rain, mineral deposits, bird "deposits", spider webs, etc.,) in a few hours the rotation will sweep the dirt from the glass. It's supposed to pay for itself by avoiding window-cleanings, especially on high-rise buildings.
And I believe someone is using something similar to make a nanotech-based fog-free snowmobile visor. If you've ever ridden a snowmobile for more than a few hundred yards, you're probably familiar with the fogging problem. The first guy to market with this will have a solid lock on a big pile of money.
And let's not forget our old buddy, DLP. While it's not technically "nanotech", it's still "microtech."
What I think is neatest about the glass treatments is that they have nothing to do with computers or even technology! Some creative person just came up with a damn clever idea. There will undoubtedly be more.
Re:Rice U? (Score:2)
Screw the anti-fog snowmobile shield. When will someone use nanotechnology (or any technology) to cure baldness? That's where the money's at.
Re:Rice U? (Score:3, Funny)
Because that darn intern lost the pistons and camshaft for the motor. He's still looking for them.
Been there.... (Score:3, Funny)
Sheesh!
I feel humbled (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I feel humbled (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I feel humbled (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I feel humbled (Score:2)
Wow, can you imagine the trouble you'd be in getting a flat at 65nm/h?
Re:I feel humbled (Score:2)
Re:I feel humbled (Score:2)
A great day... (Score:5, Funny)
yeah, but the hard part is... (Score:5, Funny)
One question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One question (Score:2)
The car is unpowered, and just rolls around.
Re:One question (Score:3, Interesting)
push millions of little cars around, using spinning mirrors and judicious timing.
Re:One question (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:One question (Score:4, Funny)
Re:One question (Score:3, Funny)
It's YÅMV, of course. Your Ångströmage may vary.
I give it six months (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I give it six months (Score:2)
Yeah, with 20" dubs!
Directional Friction Reduction? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Directional Friction Reduction? (Score:5, Interesting)
I can tell you two things:
1. I do not believe they have proven the wheels roll. They think they
have proven it but their STM work is embarassingly bad
(for starters, clean Au-111 surface has herringbone reconstruction
which is not seen in their images, the car is not resolved with anything
close to atomic resolution, temperature drift is atrocious etc.)
2. The surface of gold is very "soft" even at room temperature. Heating
it to 100 C often is enough to restore herringbone reconstruction to
a mechanically randomized surface. By 200 C the surface is essentially
a liquid though gold's partial pressure is still negligible meaning
that this liquid does not yet evaporate. Everything I see in their
paper shows to me that the molecules do not roll, but rather diffuse
or surf along with the surface. Certainly many buckyballs are seen
near step edges, something that happens to all crap diffusing on the
surface because it is energetically favorable to assemble there.
In short, there is no evidence of science or even engineering here.
Slashdot bought into the PR of the kind of nano project that made
nanotechnology into a dirty word among the leading research groups
in the area. BTW, I am not doing STM research and am not planning
to so I am not speaking as a competitor. More like: this is why I
moved on from nano-work, so i don't have to deal with crap-meisters
like this.
Re:Directional Friction Reduction? (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh huh (Score:5, Funny)
BoD: What's the problem?
Scientists: Well, we need to be able to move atoms and molecules around in precise ways.
BoD: How can we help?
Scientists: We need some funding to build little, tiny trucks to carry them around in.
[long pause]
BoD: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! No really guys, what did you need?
Time to re-define the term... (Score:2)
Will the nanotrucks need nano-union nano-drivers?
What about the nano-truckstops? Staffed with nano-waitresses?
etc. etc. etc.
Re: (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:How long before... (Score:2)
The rest of the site (http://finnesey.org/ [finnesey.org]) has lots of other pics of cute little japanese cars (and a few rather cool Kei-car sports cars), too.
It seems that almost every single car available in Japan has either an AWD option, a turbo option or both...
Being picky but...... (Score:2)
Still cool as shyte anyway you slice it.
Re:Being picky but...... (Score:2)
I can see it now (Score:3, Funny)
Pic (Score:5, Funny)
.
I hope they don't make the same mistake Ford made, and only offer it in black.
-AC
Re:Pic (Score:3, Funny)
Here's a pic, with the car circled:
o
And the gas mileage is still lousy... (Score:2)
Better Link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Better Link (Score:3, Insightful)
Less is a measure of amount (e.g. "Put less milk in if it bothers your stomach."), whereas "fewer" describes a measure of something you can count (like cookies, cars, etc.).
Re:Better Link (Score:2)
Life is getting better for pedants, many supermarket express lanes now say "12 items or fewer."
But (OOTC) aren't you putting in FEWER molecules of milk?
The biggest problem (Score:3, Funny)
H
Obligatory (Score:4, Insightful)
Or maybe, because the researchers are in Texas, I could suggest that they are now embarking on a program to make the biggest nano-car in the 50 states. Or that maybe they didn't insist on sticking a pickup bed on the back. Or "wow, have we discovered the only Texans who are secure about their penis size?"
But I'm not going to make any of those jokes. I'm not even going to make any potentially +1 insightful comments about how the real-world applications of this in terms of actual trucks in little tiny factories are clearly pretty silly from where I'm sitting, because things work totally differently on the nano scale, and that's just clearly grasping at some sort of relevance (though obviously, the construction methods are important).
Know why I'm not going to make any of those comments? Because I just don't care anymore. I try so hard to be interested sometimes, studying toward a Ph. D in physics and engaging in interesting slashdot debate day after day, and sometimes I sit here and realize that I don't really care about any of it. I want to go outside. I hate this damn computer, this damn internet, all you moderators, and myself for posting here seeking approval for these stupid, inane remarks and pseudointellectual commentary I barf up, seeing it moderated to +5 by people who don't know any better. Deliver me from this, merciful God. My soul is devoid of humor, and my life is an empty, broken shell.
Anyone want to go out for a drink?
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Which sounds awfully sketchy to me.
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Looks like you've already beat us to it...
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Mixed Feelings About This (Score:3, Insightful)
First, a dejected sigh. It's not useful for anything, and it's a long, awfully long way from the sophisticated "assemblers" that Drexler foresaw 20 years ago, with their thousands (or millions?) of molecular components.
On the other hand. . . These guys have actually built a mechanism with multiple moving parts at the molecular level. This is the first thing I've seen that looks anything like "real" molecular nanotechnology, as opposed to mere nanoscale particles.
So, is the glass half empty or half full? There's a temptation to laugh at this pathetic little "car" today -- but future generations might look back and say this is where the nanotechnology revolution first germinated.
EPA Estimates (Score:3, Funny)
short-sightedness (Score:4, Funny)
Took long enough (Score:2)
Crookes Radiometer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Crookes Radiometer (Score:2)
Impressive, but slightly misleading (Score:2, Insightful)
Gas (Score:2, Troll)
Package (Score:2, Funny)
Finally: Honest Nanotechnology (Score:2)
And it demonstrates the problems predicted by skeptics: The system had to be heated to the point that the carbon would debond from the gold so it could roll. I suspect it was a very bumpy roll. This sort of problem isn't likely to go away easily.
Eight thimble-sized cylinders (Score:3, Funny)
Can't sit in a nanontech car (Score:2, Interesting)
car stereo (Score:2)
Doctor Fun (Score:2)
String theory (Score:2)
I have to admit... (Score:2)
If your nanocar is broken . . . (Score:2)
Micromachines! Anyone remember those? (Score:2)
PS It doesn't look like the second site will weather a slashdotting. Just lettin ya know!
Hate to bring any *facts* into this, but... (Score:2)
Cart, not car (Score:2)
Wow! (Score:2)
Followed up on this with a news story (Score:2)
I was fascinated by the idea (/. inspired), so i followed up on it by interviewing the head researcher. he gave me links to video of the Nanocar driving around, too. And filled me in on a new internal nanoscale motor. I wrote up my findings in this pcmag news story [pcmag.com].
-robyn
Re:All kidding aside (Score:2)
Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university? (Score:2)
Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university? (Score:2)
Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university? (Score:2)
Nah, little tiny bumper stickers that say "save the whales!".
Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:how (Score:2)
Re:It's perfect! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is phobia and panic, started in the realm of GE food, and spreading, through ignorance, into the world of nanotech. Nanotech is ill defined, and literally means anything over the nano-scale. Scaremongers try to use new scary words (hence their profession), like nano-toxin, and site that nanoparticles are in things like sunscreen, aerosols...etc. Of course they are, for without TiO4 in sunscreen, it wouldn't block ultraviolet rays, and it wouldn't work. I fail to see the difference between a nano-toxin and a toxin, but regardless of what I fail to see, this kind of irrational skepticism and 'but it could be NANO-toxic!' are unhelpful, and only serve to further the divide between scientists and society. Likewise, scientists dismissing the concerns of the public also furthers this divide.
Inform yourself, ask questions of the scientists, but don't say sarcastic unhelpful things like 'it's perfect for producing nano-toxins', without explaining how this might occur.
But... (Score:2)
Re:lazy (Score:2)