Tech Moving Ahead Fast
In addition to the remarkable achievement of a new form of nanoscale computing, which we covered in some detail earlier this week, several other newsworthy scientific and technological advances have been reported recently:
IBM hits milestone in nanotechnology
Hitting a major milestone in nanotechnology, IBM researchers have figured out how to measure the amount of force needed to move an atom. And that information could enable scientists to more easily -- and quickly -- develop nanoscale devices like atomic-level storage and computer chips. . .
Understanding the force required to move an atom is key to nanotechnology, according to [Markus Ternes of IBM]. He explained that it's like engineers figuring out how to build a bridge over a large river. They both need to understand the strength of the different materials. How much force would it take to make a piece of metal bend? How much force would it take to move a cobalt atom over a copper surface? They're similar questions that all need to be answered in order to build a bridge or a nanoscale storage device.
Proteins covalently attached to carbon nanotube tips provide new tool for nanotechnologyThe development of nanotechnology for atomically precise manufacturing would benefit from the ability to attach specific chemical binding sites to scanning probe microscope tips. Carbon nanotubes offer several advantages as very sharp probes for nanotech tools.
Writing at nanotechweb.org, Belle Dumé reports that Japanese scientists have succeeded in chemically attaching proteins specifically to the tips of multiwalled carbon nanotubes, avoiding contaminating attachments to the sides of the nanotubes.
One million trillion ‘flops’ per second targeted by new institutePreparing groundwork for an exascale computer is the mission of the new Institute for Advanced Architectures, launched jointly at Sandia and Oak Ridge national laboratories.
An exaflop is a thousand times faster than a petaflop, itself a thousand times faster than a teraflop. Teraflop computers —the first was developed 10 years ago at Sandia — currently are the state of the art. They do trillions of calculations a second. Exaflop computers would perform a million trillion calculations per second.
The idea behind the institute —under consideration for a year and a half prior to its opening — is “to close critical gaps between theoretical peak performance and actual performance on current supercomputers,” says Sandia project lead Sudip Dosanjh. “We believe this can be done by developing novel and innovative computer architectures.”
Ultrafast supercomputers improve detection of real-world conditions by helping researchers more closely examine the interactions of larger numbers of particles over time periods divided into smaller segments.
“An exascale computer is essential to perform more accurate simulations that, in turn, support solutions for emerging science and engineering challenges in national defense, energy assurance, advanced materials, climate, and medicine,” says James Peery, director of computation, computers and math.
Tip of the hat to Tristan Hambling for alerting us to some of these developments.
Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics blog
I believe this rollercoaster is just about to go over the edge. At least thats what it feels like these days. If all these developments are happening within a few months(weeks?) of each other, what will the next few years bring?!
Posted by: Sigma | March 14, 2008 at 05:05 PM