Mechanical devices stamped on plastic

From PhysOrg.com:

Microelectromechanical devices -- tiny machines with moving parts -- are everywhere these days: they monitor air pressure in car tires, register the gestures of video game players, and reflect light onto screens in movie theaters. But they're manufactured the same way computer chips are, in facilities that can cost billions of dollars, and their rigidity makes them hard to wrap around curved surfaces.

Full article

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site

Insectlike 'microids' might walk, run, work in colonies

From PhysOrg.com:

A new approach in the design of miniature, insectlike robots could lead to "microids" the size of ants that move their tiny legs and mandibles using solid-state "muscles."

Full article

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site

Lab-on-a-Chip Performs 1,000 Chemical Reactions At Once

From PhysOrg.com:

Flasks, beakers, and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in medicinal chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a benchtop, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results -- literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail.

Full article

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site

Microscopic 'Hands' For Building Tomorrow’s Machines

From Science Daily:

In a finding straight out of science fiction, chemical and biomolecular engineers in Maryland are describing development of microscopic, chemically triggered robotic “hands” that can pick up and move small objects. They could be used in laboratory-on-a-chip applications, reconfigurable microfluidic systems, and micromanufacturing, the researchers say. A report on their so-called “microgrippers” is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[Continued]

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site

Trap and zap: Harnessing the power of light to pattern surfaces on the nanoscale

Trap and zap: Harnessing the power of light to pattern surfaces on the nanoscale from PhysOrg.com

Princeton engineers have invented an affordable technique that uses lasers and plastic beads to create the ultrasmall features that are needed for new generations of microchips.

[Continued]

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site

Microrobots dance on something smaller than a pin's head

Microrobots dance on something smaller than a pin's head from PhysOrg.com

Microscopic robots crafted to maneuver separately without any obvious guidance are now assembling into self-organized structures after years of continuing research led by a Duke University computer scientist.

[Continued]

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site

Team sculpts 3D particles with light

Team sculpts 3D particles with light from PhysOrg.com

MIT engineers have used ultraviolet light to sculpt three-dimensional microparticles that could have many applications in medical diagnostics and tissue engineering. For example, they could be designed to act as probes to detect certain molecules, such as DNA, or to release drugs or nutrients.

[Continued]

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site

Physicists have 'solved' mystery of levitation

From the article "Physicists have 'solved' mystery of levitation":

Levitation has been elevated from being pure science fiction to science fact, according to a study reported today by physicists.
In theory the discovery could be used to levitate a person

In earlier work the same team of theoretical physicists showed that invisibility cloaks are feasible.

Now, in another report that sounds like it comes out of the pages of a Harry Potter book, the University of St Andrews team has created an 'incredible levitation effects’ by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together.

The levitation is achieved using the Casimir Effect, which normally
is an attractive force, but is turned into a repulsive force in this instance. The most likely immediate application of the new levitation effect is to eliminate friction in micromachines.

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site