Okay, once you start smashing or pulling atoms apart, they get pretty exciting, but IBM has just published its finding on just how little force it takes to move an atom: about one-130-millionth of an ounce of force (210 piconewtons) to push a cobalt atom across platinum or only one-1,600-millionth (17 piconewtons) of an ounce of force to shove at across copper.
It takes about 30 billion piconewtons to pick up a penny.
Geeks across the world rejoiced, now able to finish every work out (or gaming session) with a shout of "I hold the power of 130 million cobalt atoms in my hand! What type of guns are these? Yeah, atom-pushing guns."
Anyone? No? Okay, just me.
To measure the required force, Andreas J. Heinrich, a physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center, attached an atomic force microscope to a small tuning fork, no more rare than what you can find in quartz wristwatch. The fork is tapped, vibrating the tip of the microscope 20,000 times/second until it bumps into the atom. Then it bends, slowing down the vibrations. That frequency change can be used to determine the force used on the atom.
"It is amazing to see how this tool, which at its heart uses the tuning fork of an everyday wrist watch, can be used to measure forces between individual atoms," said professor Franz Giessibl of the University of Regensburg, which collaborated with IBM.
Not only is it amazing, it actually looks kind of fun:
Scientists hope to apply the research to working with atoms on the next generation of nanotechnology and circuits, providing an alternative to IBM's other proposal of using DNA to shift carbon nanotubes around. Since certain surfaces and materials require different levels of force, these measurements will give researchers a whole new set of data to plan nanotech construction around, creating more stable or flexible structures depending on the need.
All in all it's been an exciting week for Moore's Law.
[via Photonics.com and NYTimes.com]
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