Science
Related: About this forumIBM makes 'world's smallest movie' using atoms
After taking a few shadowy pictures for the scientific world's paparazzi, the atom is now ready for its closeup. Today, a team of IBM scientists are bypassing the big screen to unveil what they call the "world's smallest movie." This atomic motion picture was created with the help of a two-ton IBM-made microscope that operates at a bone-chilling negative 268 degrees Celsius. This hardware was used to control a probe that pulled and arranged atoms for stop-motion shots used in the 242-frame film. A playful spin on microcomputing, the short was made by the same team of IBM eggheads who recently developed the world's smallest magnetic bit. Now that the atom's gone Hollywood, what's next, a molecular entourage?
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/01/ibm-atomic-movie/
siligut
(12,272 posts)I appreciate that in a smart person.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)...some personal reflections.
sir pball
(4,743 posts)For being one of the most evil megacorporations in history, IBM Research has always done some pretty amazing stuff that is pretty much in the realm of ivory-tower work - they aren't just using atomic force microscopy, they invented it! Better track record in the last 20 years than the National Labs, even.
Sure, maybe there's some profit to be had in the far far future from twiddling atoms, but most corps would look at the R&D money this takes and die laughing.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)...first with a quote from the article I cited in my reply #4:
Then, if your have some time to read, there's an article linked at the end of that page, The future of CPU scaling: Exploring options on the cutting edge, that provides lots of details.
More on More-than-Moore at the second link.
sir pball
(4,743 posts)It's just so out of character for a profit-driven corporation to invent a tool to visualize atoms so that we can literally SEE how they behave is still mindblowing to me. It's not some tech that is immediately monetizable, but rather making the tools to make the tools to make the future kind of thing. The kind of thing the private sector has been lacking in the last 30 years. I say this as a former scientist deeply involved in truly basic research purely publically funded.
I guess the Koch bros have jaded me on private industry - there's no answer to "where's the 12-month profit on this?" when it comes to an ACM...it's seriously the kind of work I saw the NSF funding at Brookhaven, not what I imagine a venture capitalist throwing cash at expecting anything faster than a T-Bill return. It puts a little faith back into private enterprise, which I've never dismissed as a "true force" in the absence of stupid, immediate profit driven bookkeeping.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)People who look down their noses at basic research are pretty good at choking on the dust of people who don't in the long run.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)Thanks for the post, PF.