Free Republic

The quantum stickiness between very close surfaces produces no drag when they move, researchers claim.The 'sticky' Casimir force can even be repulsive.Jay Penni and Federico Capasso The quantum-mechanical effect that makes objects stick together when they are very close produces no friction when the objects are moving, two physicists claim. The results suggest that the operation of nanoscale machinery might not be as sticky a problem as feared. It's long been thought that the 'Casimir force', which pulls together two objects when they are much less than a hair's breadth apart, will create a drag force when the objects move....

Photonic circuit in which optical force is harnessed to drive nanomechanics. New Haven, Conn. — Science fiction writers have long envisioned sailing a spacecraft by the optical force of the sun’s light. But, the forces of sunlight are too weak to fill even the oversized sails that have been tried. Now a team led by researchers at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science has shown that the force of light indeed can be harnessed to drive machines — when the process is scaled to nano-proportions. Their work opens the door to a new class of semiconductor devices that...

WHAT do you get if you take a set of miniature silicon helicopter blades, drop them into a beaker of water and blast them with sound waves? A remote-controlled underwater "bubble rotor" that could be used to manipulate individual cells. The rotor, developed by Daniel Attinger of Columbia University in New York, consists of a piece of silicon, 60 micrometres wide, cut into two crossed blades. It can be made to spin by placing it near a bubble of air in water and hitting the bubble with ultrasound waves. Although the bubble rotor itself is 100 times bigger than ordinary...

RNA could form building blocks for nanomachines WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Microscopic scaffolding to house the tiny components of nanotech devices could be built from RNA, the same substance that shuttles messages around a cell's nucleus, reports a Purdue University research group.