Nanotech News

Self Assembling Molecular Piston

• Problem: Nanoscale machines fall apart• Solution: self-assembly as it operates• Operates 4x faster than it falls apart• Each operation recoils the apparatus

Protein Folding: Quantum Effects

• Apparently QM is needed to explain some aspects of protein folding– Especially oddness in folding/unfolding as

temperature increases– May mean that control of protein folding and its

prediction is much harder• Controlled protein folding/unfolding is one

path identified by Drexler for building nano-machines

DNA Molecular Robots

• Walk along DNA tracks in any desired direction– Precursor to nano assembly line– Walks along rigid track

• Robots behavior is modified by programming the track work

RNA as an nano-assembly tool

• New research shows RNA, like DNA can be used for nanoscale construction

• RNA can be manipulated with simplicity characteristic of DNA, while possessing noncanonical base-pairing, versatile function, and catalytic activity similar to proteins.

• Problem of Rnase contamination has been addressed– RNA nanoparticles resistant to RNase digestion

Spaser – Improvement on Laser

• Normal laser length cannot be less than half wave length of light– Spaser can be much smaller• “surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission

of radiation”

– considered a critical component for future technologies based on nanophotonics

– A Spaser-based microscope might be so sensitive that it could see genetic base pairs in DNA.

Magnetic State Switch – Room temperature

• State of single molecule changed – Beams of light used

• Possible path to ultra small storage devices• Switch is only 1-2 nm wide

First Programmable Nanoprocessor

• Nanoprocessor with 2 terahertz switching– Uses nanowires to perform logic and arithmetic

operations– scalable and programmable logic tiles based on

semiconductor nanowire transistor arrays– Prototype is only fuller adder and other basic

computational components– the tiled architecture is fully scalable, allowing the

assembly of much larger and ever more functional nanoprocessors.