X-Message-Number: 5478 Date: 26 Dec 95 12:00:56 EST From: yvan Bozzonetti <> Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Brain reading with X-rays In the November issue of PERIASTRONN (Vol. 3,#7, p.7) Dr. Donaldson reports about an information published in Science (Vol. 270, - 1995- p. 1179-1180) on how to make flat screens with carbon nanotubes. There was a 2 cm in diameter device produced. I don't know what are the potential market value of these systems as screen, on the other side I know they are exactly the componement we need to build a high definition, high sensivity X-ray camera. Some time ago I atended a conference on X-rays telescopes given by the director of the main french observatory. I pointed out to him the value of refractive carbon lenses over grazing incidence mirrors. The main problem to solve vas not to make a picture, it was to convert it into recoverable informations. X-ray pictures are very small for a given focal length, "my" astronomer suggested to use a microchannel plate amplifier (Something I use as cheap binocular) maid from nanometer sized carbon tubes. With ten nanometers in diameter nanotubes, we can get a 5 nm line sharpness in the picture or 2 000 000 lines/cm (5 millions lines/inch). A 2 cm detector would produce a brain picture with 100 nm resolution, as much to seen the configuration state of large molecular complexes in dendritic buttons at the end of dendritic spines. There is the root of brain information and structure. For the first time, we can shift from speculations about brain reading in undefined future epoch and start to ponder about it with the technology at hand today! Y. Bozzonetti. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5478