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Scientists Measure What It Takes to Push a Single Atom
NY Times ^
| February 22, 2008
| KENNETH CHANG
Posted on 02/23/2008 5:08:00 PM PST by neverdem
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Jenny Hunter, IBM
An illustration of the tip of an atomic force microscope, in brown, measuring the force it takes to move a cobalt atom, the yellow sphere, on a crystalline surface.
IBM
The tuning fork in the atomic force microscope, which measures the interaction between the tip and the atom.
The Force Needed to Move an Atom on a Surface
1
posted on
02/23/2008 5:08:01 PM PST
by
neverdem
To: neverdem
a very, very, very small pusher
2
posted on
02/23/2008 5:12:57 PM PST
by
NonValueAdded
(Who Would Montgomery Brewster Choose?)
To: neverdem
3
posted on
02/23/2008 5:15:57 PM PST
by
Greg F
(Do you want a guy named Hussein to fix your soul? Michelle Obama thinks you do.)
To: neverdem
About one-130-millionth of an ounce of force pushes a cobalt atom across a smooth, flat piece of platinum. Pushing the same atom along a copper surface is easier, just one-1,600-millionth of an ounce of force.
How about gold, which is more conductive than either metal? Gold should take even less force.
4
posted on
02/23/2008 5:16:21 PM PST
by
Balding_Eagle
(If America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
To: neverdem
Color me jaded, but it seems the days of Boltzmann and Gibbs, when men solved these problems through sheer power of intellect are gone. Nowadays it's just smaller, thinner, lighter, purer, better machined, more highly polished, more collimated, better resolved, higher power, and more generously funded.
5
posted on
02/23/2008 5:28:58 PM PST
by
SpaceBar
To: Balding_Eagle
The work was done in the Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California.
For those who do not know, IBM started as the Bundy Manufacturing Company in Downtown Binghamton NY at the turn of the century, They then moved to Endicott, 8 miles to the west, at that time a shoe manufacturing mecca. Now the area is uber-gentrified and both Endicott-Johnson and IBM are gone, victims of the irresponsible government of Broome County and the State of New York. It is a d**n shame.
6
posted on
02/23/2008 5:29:32 PM PST
by
Shady
(The Fairness Doctrine is ANYTHING but fair!!!!)
To: Balding_Eagle
Gold is a good conductor of ELECTRONS, as in electric current. Does that mean it’s a good conductor of ATOMS? Good question. I dunno.
7
posted on
02/23/2008 5:32:14 PM PST
by
zebra 2
To: neverdem
these are the same people who insist that man is descendent from apes, fish, and goo, correct?
8
posted on
02/23/2008 5:36:10 PM PST
by
the invisib1e hand
(I can't remember, is this satire or not?)
To: neverdem
it will take them a million years before they understand what it takes for a pregnant woman to give birth.
9
posted on
02/23/2008 5:36:41 PM PST
by
ari-freedom
(Never a dude like this one! Obama's got a plan to stick it to The Man!)
To: neverdem
Isn’t “one-1,600-millionth of an ounce” actually one-1.6 billionth of an ounce?
Can’t these scientists count?
10
posted on
02/23/2008 5:39:57 PM PST
by
4Liberty
(U.S. Income Tax laws are enforced... but Immigration laws aren’t = global tax.)
To: zebra 2
Gold is a good conductor of ELECTRONS, as in electric current. Does that mean its a good conductor of ATOMS? Good question. I dunno. I don't either, I was making a wild guess, based on the shaky idea that there may some similarities.
11
posted on
02/23/2008 5:45:34 PM PST
by
Balding_Eagle
(If America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
To: 4Liberty
Did it cross your mind that it might be the NYT with the problem, not the scientists?
To: the invisib1e hand
13
posted on
02/23/2008 5:49:38 PM PST
by
Balding_Eagle
(If America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
To: neverdem; Alamo-Girl; betty boop
Pushing an atom?... Science does not even know what an atom is...
Einstein worked with things too big to visualize or even calulate in the Universe and Niels Bohr (Quantum Physics) delt with things much too small to visualize or calulate..
What an atom "is", and What life "is", are blank spaces to science.. Pushing an atom is not pushing little balls revolving around each other.. Thats a mythical construct..
And the earth does "seem" flat from several perpectives..
Dead DNA appears exactly like live DNA...
So many mysterys.. so much that takes "faith".. for humans..
14
posted on
02/23/2008 6:05:30 PM PST
by
hosepipe
(CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole....)
To: neverdem
A single atom does not roll
Even a single atom will roll when Obama becomes POTUS. Obama will also end Brownian Motion by reaching to every particle and nudging it in the correct direction.
15
posted on
02/23/2008 6:17:41 PM PST
by
alecqss
To: Greg F
To my knowledge, the answer is 42.
I guess we’re asking different questions.
:-)
16
posted on
02/23/2008 6:27:02 PM PST
by
TrueKnightGalahad
(When you're racing...it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.)
To: Balding_Eagle
they’ve been wrong before.
17
posted on
02/23/2008 6:31:05 PM PST
by
the invisib1e hand
(I can't remember, is this satire or not?)
To: the invisib1e hand
theyve been wrong before. And they don't have the correct answer now, of that I'm 100% sure, so what?
As our understanding of these things increases, other scientists will say "how on earth could they not understood this or that". And then they will adjust the calculations to reflect the most current state of human knowledge. So what? That's how progress is made. That's how we developed the first atomic bomb.
Rather than come to mock them, why didn't you put in your estimate of how much energy it took?
I suspect it's because you don't know enough to even make a guess. So you are reduced to acting like a screaming monkey, jumping up and down and and shouting "they're wrong! They're wrong".
18
posted on
02/23/2008 7:00:54 PM PST
by
Balding_Eagle
(If America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
To: Balding_Eagle
I suspect it's because you don't know enough to even make a guess. So you are reduced to acting like a screaming monkey, jumping up and down and and shouting "they're wrong! They're wrong". Maybe you should lay off the halucanogenics. To wit, where did I say anything remotely like that? Because I used the word "wrong" in a sentence, you transalate it that way?
The damndest thing about trying to communicate is the absolute gamut of misconceptions that people who probably watch wayyy too much TV misread into the simplest statements.
19
posted on
02/23/2008 7:06:05 PM PST
by
the invisib1e hand
(the model prescribes the required behavior. disincentives ensure compliance.)
To: SpaceBar
Color me jaded, but it seems the days of Boltzmann and Gibbs, when men solved these problems through sheer power of intellect are gone. Nowadays it's just smaller, thinner, lighter, purer, better machined, more highly polished, more collimated, better resolved, higher power, and more generously funded. The fundamental breakthroughs come from intellect and a bit of luck. Who knows when some everyday event will trigger a thought in a scientists mind that takes him/her down a revolutionary scientific path.
20
posted on
02/23/2008 7:20:28 PM PST
by
fso301
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