Scientists learn to levitate tiny objects

[UM-Bot]

US 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.

View: Full Article | Source: Reuters

[RobertoIlias]

nanomachines will be the end all of medicine and age for that matter.

Could this be a step toward immortality?

Edited January 9, 2009 by MindFire

[louis_last]

Quite possibly but we still don't know enough about the biological mechanics of ageing, there's all sorts of problems with immortality, physical and psychological.

I'm more paranoid that it brings us one step closer to being assimilated by the borg.

[Tropo]

well you know how the old saying goes: resistance is futile

[Exterminator]

Well, talking about immortality.. it scares me... well, take your time one day and think it's bad sides...

eg. Imagine the one you love the most is not immortal, but you are. You spent an entire lifetime.. um. excuse me, a Normal lifetime.. then they die naturally. It would be the most painful thing to see them dying. It will literally ruin your life.

there are many many more things even more scary about it.

[(Moonlight)]

I'd like to add to Exterminator's statement that if you live long enough, (well, well over the oldest living person, my bet is) your brain would actually run out of room for more memories. Much like a computer's hard drive, in that sense.

[ExpandMyMind]

"I'd like to add to Exterminator's statement that if you live long enough, (well, well over the oldest living person, my bet is) your brain would actually run out of room for more memories."

as far as i'm aware. scientists havent actually found any part of the brain that holds long term memories. i could be wrong with this but im sure its lead to all sorts of theories about where long term memories are stored. some scientists even believe they may not even be stored inside the body at all....