IBM announces nanotechnology achievements
from www.sciencedaily.com, 8.30.2007
ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- IBM announced two major scientific achievements Thursday, both in the field of nanotechnology. Researchers said the breakthroughs will enable scientists to further explore the building of structures and devices out of ultra-tiny components as small as a few atoms or molecules.
In the first report, scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., describe major progress in identifying a property called magnetic anisotropy, which determines an atom's ability to store information. That research, said IBM, could lead to storage of as many as 30,000 movies in a device the size of an iPod.
In the second report, IBM researchers in Zurich, Switzerland, describe creating the first single-molecule switch that can operate without disrupting the molecule's outer frame. That is said to be a significant step toward building computing elements at the molecular scale -- chips the size of a dust specks that could each power a supercomputer.
Both achievements are to be detailed in the Friday issue of the journal Science.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
