Nanotech Breakthrough of the Decade

IMHO. You be the judge.


www.worldchanging.com...

A team of researcher from the University of Texas, Dallas, and Australia's CSIRO has come up with a way to make strong, stable macroscale sheets and ribbons of multiwall nanotubes at a rate of seven meters per minute.

This is what I've been waiting for, not sure how usefull Multiwalled tubes will be but at least the process has been nailed down. Here are a couple of related threads.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It seems we are in a renaissance in Fullerine Research.

EDIT: TO FIX LINK

[edit on 19-8-2005 by sardion2000]

That's kind of ironic... I decide to write a research paper on nanotech 2 days ago, and in that time there has been 2 big nanotech stories. This will be great for my paper.

Here is a video of the process in action, it's around 6.7 megs so 56k beware.

Click image to download movie
Interesting video, not quite sure what to make of it though. This technology is unlike anything I have ever seen.


[edit on 19-8-2005 by sardion2000]

Pretty interesting video.. wished it was longer and that they explained what was happening while it was making the nanotubes.

This is a tremendous breakthrough, I hope its put into commercial use as soon as possible and not swept under the carpet, will change the world we live in.

Is it me or is the pace of advancement in Nanotech speeding up? Achievements that we expected 5 years off are happening allot quicker then we anticipated(at least I and a few of my friends)

Could you imagine clothes of that stuff? Vary its color by slight changes in, say, humidity, and turn the heat of a summer day into electricity to run, say, body air-conditioning.

"O brave new world, that has such people in't!"

Nanotech is for sure the holy grail, worlds your oyster.

www.guardian.co.uk...

Here is a detailed article, it give a few details on how they accomplished this feat. Simpler then I thought...

Using sticky paper similar to a Post-it Note, the scientists teased out long sheets of the material from clumps of carbon fibres prepared in their laboratory. The sheets were initially full of holes but could easily be squeezed into dense ribbons capable of supporting drops of water and orange juice some 50,000 times their weight.

My Freshman year in HS two years ago, I wrote just a 3 page report on Nanotech. I couldn't put what I wanted in it because it could be no longer than 3 pages. Now that I have a no-limit paper, I'll have tons to write on. Just the little info I uncovered two years ago is mind boggling. Some future possobilities:

1. Computers Cheap enough for anyone to buy
   
2. Can help clean pollution of the environment
   
3. Highly improved medicine
   
4. Living Space greatly improved
   
5. Solar energy highly feasible
   
6. Cheap Greenhouses mean saving on food, land, and water
   
7. Purify water (maybe even salt water)
   
8. Cure diseases/Cancers
   

There are some HUGE disadvantages though. here are some of those I wrote in my Paper:

1. Economic Disruption
   
2. Personal risks from terrorists or criminals
   
3. Unstable arms race
   
4. A problem known as "Grey Goo"
   
5. Black Market nanotech
   

The list can go on and on. if you would like, once I'm done writing my paper, I will post it here under the tech forum if any of you would like to read more on Nanotechnology.

That's freaking amazing, sardion! I've become really interested in nanotech lately, largely due to a course I took in school last year on it. This is definitely a major breakthrough in nanotechnology. The key now is to be able to produce carbon nanotubes at a cheaper cost than $500/gram, lol. Hopefully this device can help there, too.

Here is a quote from the site I got most of the research from on my last paper. I have to dig around and find that site again though. It is about the Terrorist/Criminal danger of Nanotechnology. Here it is:

"Criminals and terrorists with stronger, more powerful, and much more compact devices could do serious damage to society. Defenses against these devices may not be installed immediately or comprehensively. Terrorists could have a field day. Chemical and biological weapons could become much more deadly and much easier to conceal. Many other types of terrifying devices are possible, including several varieties of remote assassination weapons that would be difficult to detect or avoid. If such devices were available from a black market or a home factory, it would be quite difficult to detect them before they were used; a random search capable of spotting them would be a clear violation of current human rights standards in most civilized countries. Detecting a criminal user after the fact might also be difficult; since many devices can be computer-controlled and networked, the criminal does not have to be at the scene."


And here's an even scarier quote:

"Molecular manufacturing raises the possibility of horrifically effective weapons. As an example, the smallest insect is about 200 microns; this creates a plausible size estimate for a nanotech-built antipersonnel weapon capable of seeking and injecting toxin into unprotected humans. The human lethal dose of botulism toxin is about 100 nanograms, or about 1/100 the volume of the weapon. As many as 50 billion toxin-carrying devices—theoretically enough to kill every human on earth—could be packed into a single suitcase. Guns of all sizes would be far more powerful, and their bullets could be self-guided. Aerospace hardware would be far lighter and higher performance; built with minimal or no metal, it would be much harder to spot on radar. Embedded computers would allow remote activation of any weapon, and more compact power handling would allow greatly improved robotics. These ideas barely scratch the surface of what's possible."

Despite Dangers like this, I still believe nanotech must push forward. Life will be just so... I'm not sure of a word to describe it. it's going to be like heaven on Earth.

[edit on 19-8-2005 by DarkHelmet]

WOW I must say I'm impressed,how long will it take for products using this stuff to hit the market?

From what I have researched and such... I'm guessing that it will slowly begin to become commercial in 10 to 15 years. It should become mass Produced anywhere from 20-30 years from now.

Quick question so i know ahead of time... is there anyone that will want me to post my paper. I have lot's more info other than the little bit I posted.

Yeah go ahead, U2U Advisor to ask for the Scholar tag that will allow you to post in the Research forum. Perfect place for it. As for your timelines, you havn't taken into account recent breakthrough which I wasn't expecting for at least a few more years(maybe even 5 years). Now we could see mass-marketed products using this technique within oh say 5 years time, some tentative product launches will probably happen within the year. All IMHO though It could happen sooner then that even lol.

reason I say 10-15 years, is because before they are going to produce it and release it out in public, they have to perfect their procedures and such. this advancement was a few years ahead of schedule, but I feel that it will still follow around my timeline give or take a few years.

My guess would be 5 years at the most,there's just to many uses for it and way to much money to be made, especially how competitive everything is now adays
Once all the big companies like Sony,Toshiba,Ford, Honda,Intel,..etc invest in this stuff you would think the market for it would take off?

From another part of my paper I found this where it says when it should be about ready to be used in nanofactories.

likely will by 2015, and almost certainly will by 2020

Edit*
(Forgot to finish my post)

So following this, yes, it will be 10 to 15 years. This is just saying that this is when the industry will begin to bloom. t will be another 10 or so Years before it becomes a fully-fledged Empire.

[edit on 19-8-2005 by DarkHelmet]

DarkHelmet...I think you forgot the most important on of all, the Space Elevator.

oh, and Desalination Plants (making saltwater into fresh water) allready exists, so we dont need nanotech for that.

oh, and Desalination Plants (making saltwater into fresh water) allready exists, so we dont need nanotech for that.

Oh but we do. Current Desalination Plants are energy intensive projects. With a Passive Nanotech filter all you would need todo is pour it(theoretically speaking of course I'm not sure if it's been done yet, it just may have)