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Single Nanotube Becomes World's Smallest Radio

Posted by kdawson on Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:13 PM
from the play-misty-for-me dept.
Toys Science
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "Researchers at the National Science Foundation have utilized a single carbon nanotube to perform all the functions of a standard radio, acting as an antenna, tunable filter, amplifier, and demodulator. They were then able to tune in a radio signal generated in the room and play it back through an attached speaker. The device is functional across a bandwidth widely used for commercial radio. From the NSF: 'The source content for the first laboratory test of the radio was "Layla," by Derek and the Dominos, followed soon after by "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys.'"
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Submission: World's Smallest Radio: A Single Carbon Nanotube by InvisblePinkUnicorn (1126837)
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  • The Apple iTube. Don't buy just one, buy the whole series.

  • Awesome! (Score:4, Funny)

    by butterwise (862336) <butterwise AT gmail> on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:17PM (#21199085)
    At that scale, you can actually see the radio waves [nsf.gov]...
    • It is somewhat saddening that they have to put that disclaimer there that "The waves shown in this image were added for visual effect, and are not part of the original microscope image".

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by butterwise (862336)
        It is almost more saddening that the waves are not going in the correct direction given the nanotube is a receiver, not a transmitter...

    • It's 1950's technology, and it's NOT a radio! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2007, @02:47PM (#21201209)
      Reading more closely, we discover that:

      It's not really a complete radio...It's just a tiny tuning fork.
      Demos like these make me ask: what the hell happened to research in America?

      They left out the fact that they were using a specially tuned PWM transmitter... and a high powered one at that... to vibrate the .6 cm nanotube structure.

      They left out (as well) the fact that they were using another specially tuned receiver to detect the movement and turn it back into audio.

      They could have done the same thing with almost any material, including a grain of salt, a slice of stale pizza or a drop of water. This is essentially the same as attaching an earphone to a crystal, and then tuning the transmitter to the crystal and making it vibrate by hitting it with a high powered modulated wave. I guess it's cool that they got a huge nsf grant to recreate an incomplete crystal radio.

      Using an external process to convert the vibration back into audio is cool and all, but I wish I could win big grants for such elementary application of well-known processes. Hey, maybe I could bounce a laser-beam off the carbon nano-tube and call it a "secure" nano-communications device! Who wants to help me write the NSF research request?

      A rerun of the hype surrounding MIT's shocking rediscovery of tesla's magic coil trick.
      I predict an NSF funded rebirth of spark gap transmitters.
  • We're they paying royalties to the RIAA? RIAA vs. NSF coming soon to a Federal Court near you.
  • the day mankind gave the gift of Howard Stern and American Top 40 and the traffic report to bacteria

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Soko (17987)
      the day mankind gave the gift of Howard Stern and American Top 40 and the traffic report to bacteria

      *blink*

      Gift? That list sounds like we're trying to find a new way to kill them.

      Soko

  • We're gonna need (Score:3, Funny)

    by ackthpt (218170) * on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:17PM (#21199101) Homepage Journal

    We're gonna need a bigger tin-foil hat.

  • ...on people losing these things. "Damnit, where's my radio? Did I lose it again!? Oh wait here it is... no... that's pocket lint."

  • Returning to Zettl's runner analogy, the vibrating nanotube is akin to a ditch with a constantly changing width.


    I really do love the analogies we use to describe quantum-mechanical or relativistic behavior. Even the best ones start off comprehensible but rapidly morph into the deranged land of our most cheese-fuelled nightmares.

  • In other news... (Score:4, Funny)

    by EvilSpudBoy (1159091) on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:19PM (#21199133)
    Perfoming rights organizations, BMI and ASCAP, want a fee for every carbon nanotube sold.
    • will go to the figurehead artists, who put their name to some words and then drive their hybrid SUVs to their red carpet galas, leaving the poor, starving attorneys, accountants, and publicists to do the real work -- the licensing?

      It's time to make a stand. We at the firm of Leech, Suxxor & Scabb are taking up the cause of starving parasuits everywhere.

      We just want what's right.

      We just want what's fair.

  • Journal abstract and Project page (Score:5, Informative)

    by InvisblePinkUnicorn (1126837) on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:19PM (#21199137)
    Their project page has videos, simulations, and audio playback samples: NSF Nanotube Radio [berkeley.edu]

    Here is their journal abstract [acs.org]:

    "We have constructed a fully functional, fully integrated radio receiver from a single carbon nanotube. The nanotube serves simultaneously as all essential components of a radio: antenna, tunable band-pass filter, amplifier, and demodulator. A direct current voltage source, as supplied by a battery, powers the radio. Using carrier waves in the commercially relevant 40-400 MHz range and both frequency and amplitude modulation techniques, we demonstrate successful music and voice reception."
    • Some details, from the scientific article, about how it functions:

      Amazingly, all four critical radio receiver components can be simultaneously implemented with a single carbon nanotube. ... the entire radio consists of an individual carbon nanotube mounted to an electrode in close proximity to a counter electrode. A direct current (dc) voltage source, such as from a battery, is connected to the electrodes and powers the radio. Important for the radio's operation, the applied dc bias negatively charges the t

  • The radio is a single carbon nanotube, right?

    It must be real difficult reading the display (or dial) to see what station you're tuned in to!!!! ;)

    • The REAL problem is the batteries. Bacteria found out they can get high eating them. So all they want to do now is listen to music on their iNanoNano and breed.

  • Up next for the NSF researchers (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A nanotube version of the worlds smallest violin.
  • When the internet will be upped from normal tubes to nanotubes. Web 2.0 IS COMING!

  • Who cares! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Funkcikle (630170) on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:23PM (#21199211)
    No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
  • The transmitter is next. I can see it now. Dust the crowd with nano-tube transmitters and follow them around with the that Black Van.

    You know the Black Van that I mean, the one with the black tinted windows and a vanity plate on the front that says "Fearmobile".

  • Wait...they broadcast Layla and Good Vibrations and admitted it publicly? Expect to hear from RIAA lawyers soon...
  • ....Inanimate Carbon Rod!

    I can't believe we've overlooked this week's winner for so very, very long.
  • ... I'm afraid "nano" is trademarked for audio devices ... please cease and desist in the use of this term in this connection ...

  • this reminds me... (Score:3, Funny)

    by freg (859413) on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:34PM (#21199357)
    This is actually smaller than the iPod Zepto: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2005/11/28fitch.html [mcsweeneys.net]
  • so how big is the transmitter?

  • Tubes vs. Transistors (Score:3, Funny)

    by chiph (523845) on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:40PM (#21199443)
    So, do nano-scale carbon tubes sound better than transistors?
    Or, only if you use oxygen-free silver interconnects the size of a garden hose?

    Chip H.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by murderlegendre (776042)

      Not to go too far OT with this, but.. there is much more to the "tubes vs. transistors" thing, than the sonic performance of a given tube vs. a given transistor. This is one area where the /. membership is willfully ignorant..

      Spend a little time learning about the design differences between complete tube and transistor circuits, and you'll soon discover that tube circuits allow the designer to select passive components which offer greater sonic advantage than the passive components populating a typical tr

  • All hail the inanimate carbon rod^H^H^Hnanotube!

  • Going full circle (Score:4, Informative)

    by sm62704 (957197) on Thursday November 01 2007, @01:01PM (#21199737) Journal
    In the 19th century they had pocket watches. Then watches got small enough to strap on your wrist. Then we got cell phones, threw away our wristwatches and put the phone in a pocket.

    In the 19 century [wikipedia.org] we had vacuum tubes. In the mid 20th century these were replaced by semiconductors, which were smaller and less bulky. Now we're back to tubes again, and the TFA sounds like these are kind of nano vacuum tubes, only without the vacuum.

    The nanotube radio is likely like these geek toys [wikipedia.org] nerds have been building since the early 1900s. All you need to build one is a diode, some wire, a piece of wood, and headphones to listen to it with. They used to call these things "catwhisker radios", the "cat whisker" being the diode.

    -mcgrew [kuro5hin.org]

  • The response from patent trolls (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Prototerm (762512) on Thursday November 01 2007, @01:17PM (#21199967)
    Several patent trolls have threatened to sue, claiming the work violates over 200 of their top-secret patents ("Just because the device functions on a quantum scale is not enough to avoid licensing costs" one source was quoted.) The trolls have claimed that research like this, if allowed to continue, will stifle true innovation by their exclusive licensees.
  • Yeah, but Sheriff John Brunell says that if you buy the HD carbon nanotube for a bit more, you can get extra stations between the stations!

  • Low res picture for those using lower bandwidths. (Score:3, Funny)

    by east coast (590680) on Thursday November 01 2007, @02:09PM (#21200611)
    . --Radio

    (Shown larger than actual size)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by heinousjay (683506)
      Yes, you not only want the entertainment for free, you want the distributer to pay for the privilege of getting it to your ears. That's a wonderful business idea, I'm sure someone will take that up immediately.

      • Re:Commercials (Score:4, Insightful)

        by PopeRatzo (965947) * on Thursday November 01 2007, @12:48PM (#21199549) Homepage Journal

        Yes, you not only want the entertainment for free, you want the distributer to pay for the privilege of getting it to your ears
        Please excuse me if I have a little trouble working up any sympathy for those poor, downtrodden advertisers.

        I don't mind hearing advertising with my music, but nearly 20 minutes per hour (as during drive time) is a little excessive, don't you think? I'm not prepared to start having bake sales for industries that got so greedy that it has driven them to near extinction.

        I'm pretty sick of corporations, whole industries, that believed they could treat their customers badly while attempting to drive every possible penny into their pockets, then start crying and whining when something better comes along and those customers turn their backs. It does seem, though, that killing the golden goose through greed is a defining characteristic of all corporations in this age of slash and burn profitism.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by sedman (210394)
          I hope you don't think you are the customer. The customer of a radio station is the advertiser. You are simply the product.

          Now get back on the shelf, like a good product, and try to look good for the customers.
            • Think about it, if we just turned the channel, they'd have no idea why. By publicly complaining about their service, we give them an opportunity to change their business model to one that more people find valuable. That's the way a free market democracy is supposed to work.

              It sounds like you want a fascist system where we all have to take what we are given by our corporate masters, and no one has a right to complain about poor service. Tell you what, you go live in a system like that, I'll stay here in Amer

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