U.S. scientists learn how to levitate tiny objects

[Acco]

I found this while searching Yahoo Science, originally reported by Reuters:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. scientists have found a way to levitate the very smallest objects using the strange forces of quantum mechanics, and said on Wednesday they might use it to help make tiny nanotechnology machines.
They said they had detected and measured a force that comes into play at the molecular level using certain combinations of molecules that repel one another.
The repulsion can be used to hold molecules aloft, in essence levitating them, creating virtually friction-free parts for tiny devices, the researchers said.
Federico Capasso, an applied physicist at Harvard University in Massachusetts, whose study appears in the journal Nature, said he believed that detection of this force opened the possibility of a whole new class of tiny gadgets.
The team, including researchers at the National Institutes of Health, has not yet levitated an object, but Capasso said he now knows how to do it. "This is an experiment we are sure will work," he said. His team has already filed for patents.
"By reducing the friction that hinders motion and contributes to wear and tear, the new technique provides a theoretical means for improving machinery at the microscopic and even molecular level," Dr. Duane Alexander of the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said.
"The emerging technology of nanomechanics has the potential to improve medicine and other fields," he said in a statement.
The discovery involves quantum mechanics, the principles that govern nature's smallest particles.
By altering and combining molecules, tiny machines could be devised which could have applications in surgery, manufacturing food and fuel and boosting computer speed.
The discovery arose from Capasso's prior work as vice president of physical research at Bell Labs, the research arm of telecoms gear marker Lucent Technologies, now Alcatel-Lucent.
"I started to think how can I use these exotic quantum mechanical forces for technology," he said in a telephone interview.
Bell had been working on new devices known as Micro Electromechanical Systems or MEMS, the technology used in air bag sensors to measure deceleration of cars. "We started to play with nanomechanics or micromechanics," Capasso said.
He knew that as devices became smaller and smaller, they would fall prey to what is known as the Casimir force, an attractive force that comes into play when two very tiny metallic surfaces make very close contact.
In very small objects, this force can cause moving parts to stick together, an effect known as stiction.
A Russian team had predicted this force could be reversed using the right combination of materials.
For Capasso's experiment, the team immersed a gold-coated sphere in a liquid and measured the force as the sphere was first attracted to a metallic plate, then repelled from a plate made from silica.
Capasso said levitating is next. "We just have to do it," he said.
(Editing by Maggie Fox and David Storey)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090107/...E2lNOXMdgPLBIF

This is quite interesting, I hope that when actually put this plan into focus and experimentation they will be able to do what they say and be successful, since they seem fairly confident it can be achieved. I wonder what this could lead to in the long-run in terms of newly-developing technology.

[Sphere]

This was the fundemental problem with nano-technology; small structures would "stick" together due to very weak molecular forces between the parts. On the macro scale these forces are negligable, but with so little mass, these forces become very significant.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

The discovery involves quantum mechanics, the principles that govern nature's smallest particles.
By altering and combining molecules, tiny machines could be devised which could have applications in surgery, manufacturing food and fuel and boosting computer speed.

[Captain Jin]

I am constantly amazed by things mankind discovers/creates. Nanotechnology would be incredible.

[Playfishpaste]

Yay for Van der Walls and science that gets over looked!

[Steel of Fury]

Amazing. Wonder where that'll go.

[Morkonan]

Amazing. Wonder where that'll go.

Well, imagine if they figured out a way to turn such an effect "on" and "off?" Instant nano-motor.. and a really, really tiny one at that.

Right now, we have the basics for nano-construction -

1) We can stick things together.
2) We can make them hold their shape.
4) We can make things inherently move towards each other. (no moving part required)
5) We can NOW make things move away from each other. (no moving part required)

6) What's next? What goes here and what follows after? What other basic principles do we need to construct nano-machines that mimic the actions of macro-machines?

We're slowly figuring out how to do things on the micro scale that we can do on the macro scale. That makes basic design much easier. The key to reversing the Casimir force has been a stickler for nanotech and noted by many physicists including Feynman when discussing the possibility of supercomputers & nanotech.

[Gaidin]

Amazing. Wonder where that'll go.

Haven't you ever played Deus Ex?

[Don in the North]

if you can make them move away from one another, constantly, theres potential to create something alike a power generator; giving out free energy, way way down the line in the future that is probably going to be more efficient and obviously not require a supply of material to keep it running

[Belgian General]

I'd say all scientists in the world should stop their current project and all concentrate on making a sweet awesome ninja lightsabre.
Sweet.

[Manoflooks]

There are many things that were thought impossible that are now being achieved, or soon to be achieved.


Teleporation: Scientist can teleport atoms and photons at the world record of 100 miles. They are attempting to teleport into space, and expect to teleport to the moon by 2020. plus, they are expecting to teleport water molecules and DNA in a few decades, soom even entire cells. But, when doing this, you dissolve.

Invisibility: Scientists are working on a sort of device that would bend visible light around it, much like a boulder would a stream. However, such a device would be immobile and cost millions, so don't expect harry potter's cloak anytime soon. and you cant see out,...


Among other things.

[Ulyaoth]

Anything is possible and it seems incredibly foolish of scientists to go saying things are impossible.