Over the years, radios have shrunk from refrigerator-sized contraptions to jogging devices no larger than the headphones they’re built into.
This year, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have shrunk the whole apparatus to a single carbon nanotube measuring less than one micron long, creating the world’s smallest self-contained radio receiver.
The tube, which is 10,000 times narrower than a human hair, functions as the antenna, amplifier, demodulator and tuner – all the essential components of a radio, minus the speaker.
Though the audio quality is atrocious compared even to AM radio, the sound is actually not too bad.
Interestingly, the radio signal is not received electronically, but is actually the result of mechanical vibrations caused by the antenna’s resonance with the audio signal
Aptly enough, in addition to playing "Layla" by Eric Clapton, the UC Berkeley team demonstrated the radio by playing such classics as the theme from Star Wars and ‘Good Vibrations’ by the Beach Boys.
Zap
A father-son team recently created a laser that can kill viruses without harming human tissue.
Kong-Thon Tsen and his son Shaw-Wei Tsen built the device, which operates on the principle of forced resonance by vibrating the protein coat of viruses with pulses of light lasting only a single femtosecond – one millionth of a nanosecond.
When the laser’s pulses match the virus’ resonant frequency, the protein coat around the virus breaks down, rendering it helpless against the body’s immune system.
The first test was on tobacco mosaic virus, with tests involving HIV and hepatitis to follow.
The laser can disable viruses with a power level 40 times lower than would be needed to harm human cells or tissues by the same method.
The laser can even be tuned to any virus, known or unknown, making it useful for many different uses.
There is no word on when this will be available commercially, but I’m guessing a certain doctor will want them mounted on sharks’ heads in short order.
