World's Tiniest Radiometer To Power Medical Scanner 37
BuzzSkyline writes "University of Texas physicists have built the world's smallest radiometer. The minuscule radiometer is only 2 millimeters across and operates on the same principles as the common light-driven toy, which consists of spinning black and white vanes in a partially evacuated bulb. The researchers attached a mirror to their tiny radiometer and used it to rapidly scan a laser beam. Their hope is that they will be able to incorporate the radiometer into catheters to drive scanners that produce medical images of the interiors of blood vessels and organs. The devices would replace micromotors in conventional catheter-based scanners, eliminating the need to run potentially risky electrical currents into the body."
You (Score:2)
You want to put what where?
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I think I can hear it now.
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If that's all you saw, you might be eligible for 'em.
Powered via a cable (Score:4, Insightful)
At first this "Because there's obviously no sunlight in the body, this light-mill pulls its power from a laser run up through the center of the catheter." seemed rather silly. When you already have a cable why not use that to get all the power you want? But later on the articles mentions that blood vessels really don't like anything above one volt. Other generators/motors (applying an alternating external magnetic field maybe) produce too much voltage already, so producing the power via photons is a safe alternative.
On a related note, I wonder how far the tech for burning blood sugar in a fuel cell is, that would allow for long independent operation of tiny devices and since nothing rotates should scale low wrt. voltage
Re:Powered via a cable (Score:5, Funny)
So by reading the fine article you answered your own question.
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He was just documenting one of the first explorations of The Fine Article that a Slashdot inhabitant has ever made, so that others of us might be able to learn from his experiences. I was intrigued by how his initial "well that's dumb" thought was actually addressed by the article. It shows that reading The Fine Article that is so often spoken of might offer something new, untapped. I hope other daring Slashdot inhabitants venture into this n
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This points out a need to revise the expression "where the sun doesn't shine."
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At first this "Because there's obviously no sunlight in the body, this light-mill pulls its power from a laser run up through the center of the catheter." seemed rather silly. When you already have a cable why not use that to get all the power you want? But later on the articles mentions that blood vessels really don't like anything above one volt.
Also, the optical approach means that the concept can be adapted for use while the patient is inside an MRI. Wire-free is often handy when you're building neat toys for medical use.
I'm sad though, everyone seems to have missed the best line. This new device is a power source, right?
... he hopes the micromotor will eventually find uses in cancer imaging.
"It has yet to realize its full potential," said Condit.
Get it? Get it? Oh, c'mon, the pun wasn't THAT bad...
Nanotech switches (Score:2)
Imagine a little rotating mirror on a chip of some kind. A photon hits it. The mirror flips into a different state and the photon goes off in a particular direction. Another photon hits it. The mirror flips again and the photon goes off in a different direction. In each case you can selectively flip the mirror back to restore the state of that "bit".
Sound good? Can we make it faster and smaller than working with electrons?
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That's wonderful. Now we just need some big machine to examine the state of the mirror, aim the photons in the right direction, generate photons, etc. Wait, this might be a little bigger than nano-scale...
But they're NOT radiometers! (Score:5, Informative)
The "common toy" is not a radiometer. It's a heat engine. The bulb is only partially evacuated and the hotter, black side of the vanes heats up the gas molecules, which then bounce off it with increased vigor, compared to the white side. So the vanes spin with the white side going forward.
A true radiometer would be bouncing photons off the white side, and spinning with the black side leading.
The heat-engine version has many times the efficiency of the photon one.
Re:But they're NOT radiometers! (Score:5, Informative)
This led me to look at the wikipedia article for "radiometer".
A radiometer measures the strength of the radiation; whether the measurable effect is caused by heat or anything else is not relevant as long as it's proportional to the quantity being measured; in that sense the common toy *is* a radiometer.
As for the reason it moves, it turns out it's more complicated than that.
Re:Smallest radiometer? Not at all. (Score:4, Funny)
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But... (Score:3, Interesting)
But.. But.. The fine folks at Taser International Inc say there is no risk!
I'm confused.
Benefits of higher quality images (Score:2)
Pass the lube... (Score:4, Funny)
You had me at "catheter" and "electrical current".
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If that's what you're in to. They had me at "replace".
a spinning, laser powered catheter? (Score:1, Funny)
Look, I know it doesn't literally spin.
But the analogy needs to be rethought. Because, the Crooke's thing, a laser, and my urethra don't sound compatible.
sigh. some intelligent people should really be reclassified as savants.
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You forgot to mention putting it all in a delicate glass bulb before shoving it into your urethra. But leaving that aside, WIMP !