Picture of the day

Magnetic field lines in a bacterial cell

The image shows the magnetic field lines in a single bacterial cell. The fine white lines are the magnetic field lines in the cell, which were measured using off-axis electron holography. Such bacteria live in sediments and bodies of water, and move parallel to geomagnetic field lines as a result of the torque exerted on their magnetosome chains by the earth's magnetic field. (click to see full sized version)

Acknowledgments: Richard Frankel, Mihaly Posfai, Peter Buseck

Visit the University of Cambridge Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy Gallery.

I will post the others in this series over time. To see it all now, visit the Nanotechnology Now Gallery.

Quote of the day

"Progress toward MNT means progress in building productive molecular machine systems - advancing through a series of steps in which each generation of tools can build tools of the next generation. How can this process start? It already has. Laboratory researchers today can design and make atomically precise nanoscale components from polymeric materials. Some of these materials are as strong and stiff as polycarbonate and epoxy resins. Like epoxy, these polymers can be used to bind together particles and fibers of other materials - stronger, stiffer, more diverse materials - to form composite structures. If the parts are atomically precise and designed properly, they can self-assemble in solution to form large, complex structures, including machines."

~K. Eric Drexler: a researcher, author, and policy advocate focused on emerging technologies and their consequences for the future. He pioneered studies of productive nanosystems and their products (the still-theoretical field originally termed "nanotechnology").

2057 - The City

Last night I watched 2057 – The City. See yesterday’s post on The World for more on the series.

The theme for this production could be titled "A Boy and His Holo-Pet" or possibly "Boy Crashes City ‘Net." Without giving away too much detail, I’ll say that this production was as good overall as The World. Covered here: holographic pets, self-guided networked cars, smart homes, robotics, police force technologies, intelligent surveillance, and holographic data storage.

Michio Kaku makes one very pertinent statement: "As we become more dependent on technology, just remember …computers can crash, technology can fail."

I highly recommend that you add this one to your list to watch.

In a future blog note I’ll review the other program in the series: The Body.

To learn more about this program, visit:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/2057/about/about.html