Microscopic radio sets miniaturization record - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

"Researchers led by Alex Zetttl at the University of California, Berkeley have crafted a fully working radio from a single carbon nanotube 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.

Carbon nanotubes are man-made microscopic mesh rods composed entirely of carbon atoms.

Fixed between two electrodes, the nanotube vibrates and performs the four critical roles required to receive radio waves: antenna, tunable filter, amplifier and demodulator. Power is supplied by streaming electrons from an attached battery.

Its inventors have already used it to broadcast two songs: "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys."



Yikes, the Singularity is coming. Or maybe not. I read Kurzweil's book over my Canadian fishing trip, interesting concepts, but seems like sci-fi as much as anything else.

I should be careful, this makes more than one post on the subject. Don't want to be labeled a singulatarian, or as I've seen it described elsewhere, a "nerd's rapturist".

While fishing, I asked my dad if he would accept some sort of implant to increase memory, intellegence, or some other attribute. He immedietly answered no, at which point I pointed out the two artificial lens implants in his eyes - a result of two cataract operations. His immediate no changed to a possible yes. Going blind is no fun.

As a point of initial discussion, would you accept an implant that improved your memory? Would it change your mind if you had Altzheimer's, and the lack of an implant meant you would forget the names of your children?

I just wonder what sound volume you can possibly get from such a small radio.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

Not much, I imagine. I think this was transmitting, not recieving however. I can see the world's smallest radio being part of the world's smallest cellphone or other wireless device. Why bother with the clunky 10 gram bluetooth headset for your cellphone/PDA, get it down to 10 milligrams and have it implanted.

I have lens implants, to correct weak vision not cataract removal (loved getting rid of the contact lenses) but haven't reached any stage of diminished memory. I wouldn't care much about the names of children but there are other incentives that would make improved memory a plus when and if that deficiency occurs. Card counting and beautiful, talented women immediately come to mind.

I would definitely do whatever it took to remember the names of my kids and grandkids. Traveler recently joked that he wished I grow old gracefully but the hell with that, I'm going to fight it every step of the way!!!!

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

Funny how that works mam. I have a friend that developed cancer, before this he always said he would not go through the whole chemo thing or radiation. He is receiving radiation daily for a while now. I imagine I will go kicking and screaming as well. Who was it that said youth is wasted on the young?

An interesting topic, wrxsti.

I have a tiny radio that I believed was the world’s smallest radio, until I read about that carbon nanotube thingy in your post.

I guess it would have heaps of application.

As to your question about a memory or other type of artificial or bio implant, I reckon I’d have to give a reserved “yes”.

I was born with high myopia and other eye conditions, and I have been legally blind my whole life. I’m not entirely sure what I would do if I was given the chance to get bionic eyes or an eye transplant that would make me able to see normally at this stage of my life.

I guess I don’t even like to think about it, as I don’t want to have false hope. And if it did happen, I would perhaps feel regret it came too late to fulfil the dreams I could not realise due to being born almost blind. So, in short, I think improving an impaired faculty will not necessarily improve someone’s life.

I think, as you suggest, that it would depend on each person’s situation. I would most certainly support any research that can lead to these kinds of developments.

I could not locate the story, but, along the same line as the miniature radio, I heard that a blind professor had developed a sensor that can be “sewn” into clothes, which I reckon would be a pretty neat idea.

Tethys

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-- Harry S. Truman