Daily Archives: November 4, 2004

Nano Fibers Grow Up

Here’s
a major development:

One line of nanotube research has been to find ways to make the tubes grow
continuously. Long nanotubes could be used as wires in electronic circuits
and woven into macroscopic fibers that could be used to make extremely strong
fabrics and rope. One long-range possibility is using ultralong carbon nanotubes
fibers to make an elevator to low Earth orbit.

Suddenly that elevator is sounding a lot less far-fetched. Work with me. The
article describes how new techniques are producing nanotubes 4 mm in length.
It doesn’t say how long the nanotubes were to begin with, but let’s say they
were 400 nanometers. They thus grew by a factor of 10,000. Grow them once again
by the same factor and you have nanotubes 40 KM in length. Do it again, and
you’ve got nanotubes 400,000 KM in length. Unless I’m mistaken, that will get
us there.

No, I’m not saying it will be easy going from 4 millimeters to 400,000 kilometers.
But then, I doubt it was "easy" going from 400 nanometers to four
millimeters. The point is, we’re on our way.

Rocky Mountain Bloggers

Day.

After.

Tomorrow.

Speaking of which, I think the Speculist may win the prize this time around for the blogger logging the most miles to attend the bash.

Is this Cool

…or kind of sad
and creepy?

Kaya
is ravishing. She has full lips, long lashes, and a slightly upturned nose.
Her expression radiates confidence and power, and her smooth skin is well
scrubbed and dotted with freckles. But she doesn’t have much of a body. At
all. In fact, she exists only from the neck up. Kaya is a CG model, a 48,200-polygon
beauty created by an artist in São Paulo, Brazil. And she’s sure to
be a finalist in the Miss Digital World beauty pageant.

You read that right, fanboys. Miss Digital World. How exciting!

Have digital models finally crossed the uncanny valley? Are they ready to
go head-to-head with Tyra and Giselle?

Um, I would imagine that they’ll need to grow, like, bodies first. Anyway,
I suppose the point of a digital beauty contest is to reward the artistry of
the creator. But I want to see digital people competing on their own merits.
Like what if Alice, Ramona,
and Jabberwacky were to play a round
of Jeopardy? Now that would be interesting.

I’m pretty sure Jabber would lose, but not before confusing the daylights out
of Alex Trebek.