Scans: Nano Feelies
by David Pescovitz
10:35am 2.Dec.97.PST
Have you ever felt up a Bucky ball? Scientists at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
are
using their fingertips to push around carbon
nanotubes ("Bucky tubes"), dissect virus
particles,
and repair microwires one one-thousandth the
thickness of a human hair. The team's
nanoManipulator combines the haptic capabilities
of the Phantom, a 3-D force-feedback computer
interface developed at MIT, with real-time but
proportionately scaled-up information gleaned
from
a scanning-probe microscope. "The work we do is
like trying to move Jell-O with a screwdriver in
the
dark," says project director Russell Taylor. "The
nanoManipulator provides a virtual sandbox for
scientists, letting them see, touch, poke, and
prod
specimens that are about a million times smaller
than they appear."
This article originally appeared in the December
issue of Wired magazine.
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