X-Message-Number: 1201
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
From:  (Darran Edmundson)
Subject: Molecular manipulation with the STM
Message-ID: <>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 19:28:02 GMT

Last friday I had the pleasure of attending a seminar by Dr. Don Eigler
of IBM's Alamaden Research Center on "Molecular Manipulation with the
Scanning Tunnelling Microscope" here at Simon Fraser University.  

It was utterly fascinating to see images of individual xenon atoms being
manipulated on a surface of platinum.  As a physicist, Dr. Eigler is chiefly
interested in the STM as a tool for doing physics, however, he is certainly
aware of the technological implications of his work.  (He began and ended
with quotes from Richard Feynman's 1959 talk "There's Plenty of Room at the
Bottom.")

The success of cryonics will depend on the ability to control individual
atoms (see Drexler's book "Engines of Creation") in order to repair, among
other things, the damage done to the body by the freezing process.

-- 

Darran Edmundson


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