Fiber Optic Spanner (Wrench) Developed 65
xclr8r writes "A technique to use fiber optics to adjust microscopic particles has been developed. 'Rather than an actual physical device that wraps around a cell or other microscopic particle to apply rotational force, the spanner (the British term for a wrench) is created when two laser beams — emitted by a pair of optical fibers — strike opposite sides of the microscopic object, trapping and holding it in place. By slightly offsetting the fibers, the beams can impart a small twisting force, causing the object to rotate in place. It is possible to create rotation along any axis and in any direction, depending on the positioning of the fibers.' Applications of this technology can be used in a number of ways, including cancer research. This technology could be used to actually manipulate DNA. Associate Professor of Physics Samarendra Mohanty states that macroscale applications are a possibility, including 'direct conversion of solar energy to mechanical energy,' or possibly using it to 'simulate an environment in which photons radiated from the sun could propel the reflective motors in solar sails, a promising future technology for deep-space travel.'"
Still (Score:4, Insightful)
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I already have one. It makes noise, lights up, and it's, well, a screw driver. I can even change the bit.
Re:Still (Score:4, Interesting)
You could probably make one if you really wanted.
I mean, a simple tone generator, and some variable impedence circuits attached to some high power tansducers with a waveguide cup, and you are there.
All you have to do, is ensure that the tones emitted by the transducers are offset a small fraction of a wavelength of the tone frequency, such that a reinforcement peak forms and "rolls" around the inside of the cavity. Basically an ultrasonic motor, but with just the stators.
Would also work wonders for busting up rust on a rusty bolt.
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The "sonic screwdriver" would work best with a penetrating oil like liquid wrench anyway. The oil would improve phonon conduction in the bolt.
It would basically be the same as gently tapping the head of the rusted bolt with a hammer after being sprayed, only more controlled, and with additional resonant effects in play.
Too strong of a transducer might fatigue the metal of the bolt though. Try to avoid the ones that can "homogenize" tissue samples, and you should be fine. :D
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How nice of you to assume I don't know what I am talking about! And to be so conceited about it too! /snark
Really, it makes perfect sense as written. The bolt and the threaded hole it is inserted/rusted into will have different resonant frequencies. The interface (rust) between the bolt and the hole has a lower deformation capacity, and is much more brittle than either of the other bodies.
The screwdriver produces what is essentially a standing wave that "crawls" in a circle inside the waveguide cup, which i
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The device I have in mind has 3 or more transducers, offset a fraction of a wavelength. (Not a whole wavelength fraction.) The transducers need to be slightly angled, so that the standing waves are not formed at the exact center of the cavity, but instead slightly offcenter.
For breaking rust, I actually envisioned a digitally tuned frequency, that adjusts the tone to that of the bolt by looking for polyphonic abberations. (Use a peizo crystal to measure the feedback.) The idea is to increase the amount of p
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It doesn't need to actually make really large bubbles. It just needs to cavitate the heavier rust particles suspended in the oil, creating little pockets of pure oil that move around the threads of the bolt. We don't need to volatize the oil.
Think more "ultrasonic cleaner", and less "ultrasonic heater."
We just want small cavities of the more motile oil to form behind flakes of rust between the bolt and the bolt hole. Not actual evacuated bubbles.
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PB B'laster kicks liquid wrenches butt...
If you've never tried it, you have to!
Cheers!
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You could probably make one if you really wanted.
I mean, a simple tone generator, and some variable impedence circuits attached to some high power tansducers with a waveguide cup, and you are there.
All you have to do, is ensure that the tones emitted by the transducers are offset a small fraction of a wavelength of the tone frequency, such that a reinforcement peak forms and "rolls" around the inside of the cavity. Basically an ultrasonic motor, but with just the stators.
Would also work wonders for busting up rust on a rusty bolt.
But it would also loosen all of the other bolts that were in the vicinity of the bolt you were trying to tighten!
And nothing currently existing beats a screwdriver for torquing the bolt that last bit so that it elastically deforms and stays tight.
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But a manual tool isn't as cool, and won't rattle a doorknob apart! :D
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Thor's seemed to work pretty well. Too bad we lost the tech aeons ago.
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However, Inspector Spacetime is pleased.
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It's really a sonic probe.
At Last! (Score:2)
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Don't you mean an acoustic spanner, like this:
http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/10/1/013018 [iop.org]
It's been know for quite a while than one can generate a torque with soundwaves.
Wrench != spanner (Score:2, Informative)
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Hmm.. so, a "monkey wrench", in british parlance, would be an enormous adjustable spanner?
Would a really large pipe wrench qualify?
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Well... (Score:1)
...that's interesting, but TFS is talking about an American "wrench" being the same as a British "spanner" not the other way around.
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"Wrench" is the British term for an adjustable spanner.
I disagree. An adjustable spanner is called an "adjustable spanner" where I come from. I only ever heard the term "wrench" on tv/movies.
I also think that the article summary should say ...
(the correct term for a wrench)
. :-)
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Wrench is the term that is used in North America for what much (most?) of the world calls a spanner.
Don't blame the British. Blame Webster for most of the differences between what you speak and "International" English.
Physical Device (Score:2)
Rather than an actual physical device
So, it's not a physical device? What is a 'physical' device? What is a 'non-physical' device? In fact, what is a 'device'? Sloppy language betrays sloppy thinking.
You'll give me examples, but you'll probably be wrong.
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Given the "fuzzy" nature of massive particles at the quantum scale, and their "actually" being little more than a probabalistic distribution of an energy potential, I agree.
The best explanation I could give for a "physical" device is one that makes use of electrical charge repulsion forces to interact with another massive particle. (Eg, what keeps your hand from going right through the door when you knock on it.)
Photons are not massive particles, and imbue kinetic forces through a completely different mecha
Ok, serious question here: (Score:3)
How large/complex of a particle can they manipulate using this technology, and how fast can they move particles without risking them falling out of the "tweesers"?
I imagine the applications as a synthesis system for synthentic long chain DNA, or synthetically generated amino acid chains, to better test protein folding under laboratory conditions.
Synthetic DNA chain synthesis especially is a very intriguing potential application here. The tweeser needs to be able to hold up a fair amount of mass though to be useful for that though.
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I was referring to the optical tweezers cited by the summary. Those would have wavelengths in the nanometer range, which should allow you to move largish molecules around.
The question was if you would need some other form of support to hold the substrate you were building up with the tweezed building blocks, or if you could use another tweezer to hold the chain.
Remember, individual atoms can be trapped in a bessel beam laser.
DNA nucleotide sequences are considerably larger.
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I'm afraid you are about 25 years too late to that party, unless you are running a vintage DOS machine.
If however, you indeed are running a vintage dos machine for old retro dos games (because dosbox doesn't feel right), then there are much better FOSS memory managers from the freedos project you can use instead of that incompatability inducing horror QEMM. :)
Just sayin.
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Well, you are welcome to fact check if you like.
QEMM and EMM386.EXE both gobble down a considerable amount of conventional memory to house their EMM interupt vector routine TSR, even when you don't even NEED EMS pageframes.
If all you need is for the HMA and UMBs to be available, you can HIRAM.SYS instead. It uses only 1k of conventional memory, and can even be loaded outside conventional if needed. Personally, I prefer to use UMBPCI to enable hardware UMBs on old school pentium systems for retro gaming, and
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Radiation pressure.
Essentially, when the electron of the absorbing substance absorbs a photon, its speed and energy increase, slightly altering the rest energy of the atom in question. When the photon is re-emitted, the state drops back down. When that happens, there is a change in kinetic movement of the atom.
All atoms are constantly moving in random patterns. Sustained exposure to a radiation source provides a sustained and consistent influence on that motion, wich results in a small, but cumulative chang
radiometer (Score:3)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Radiometer_9965_Nevit.gif [wikimedia.org]
It's an Optic Screwdriver! (Score:2)
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No silly. The Master uses a "laser screwdriver".
2 guesses who's working for these guys. ;)
(Lol!)
Huh? (Score:1)
Can you use it to repair the Millenium Falcon? (Score:1)
Deep space travel wastes it all (Score:2)
We never should allow people talk outside their area of competence. This guy Mohanty indeed seems wise and an inventor at microcell manipulations, but from there to say it will "rotate the mirror motors in Sun reflectors for deep space travel"...
First, in "deep space" you don't have Sun, sir. We already hadn't when going to Saturn, for instance. So you'd better call it *close* interplanetary travel, rather.
Second, using solar pressure to actuate, and even rotate things, has already been demoed in all scienc
Next up... (Score:2)
A spanner that uses light?
Hm, now if only they can develop a screwdriver using sound. THAT might be useful.
New name (Score:2)
Fiber optic spanner is kind of a long name.
I suggest hyperspanner [memory-alpha.org].