X-Message-Number: 4551
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 12:38:50 -0700
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Nanotechnology progress

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Two important and independent advances in nanotechnology were
announced this week:

1) Carbon tubes of nanometer diameter have been around for about
4 years,  but until now nobody could do much with them. In the
current issue of Nature it's reported that molten vanadium oxide
can form a coating on the carbon tubes, the carbon can then be
dissolved away using conventional chemical techniques leaving
pure vanadium oxide tubes of nanometer diameter. Unlike carbon,
vanadium oxide is active optically and so can be used as an
optical switch in a super fast computer. Also vanadium oxide is
a powerful catalyst for many chemical reactions so it might be
possible to use the tiny tubes as molds for all sorts of
different materials.

2) Moving atoms around with a scanning tunneling microscope is,
of course, old hat but it has not been possible to break
individual chemical bonds between atoms, until now. In the June
16 issue of Science it's shown that if electrons of the correct
energy are shot at an atom from the tip of a  scanning tunneling
microscope the atom will resonate and the resulting vibration
will break the chemical bond . We can now do chemistry, and not
just physics on atoms one at a time. The procedure is somewhat
faster than expected and does not require any exotic conditions
such as very low temperature. J.W.Lyding, one of the authors of
this report, is quoted as saying " We'd like to make small,
electronic devices on the nanometer scale".  
                    

                                      John K Clark           

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