I recently talked about tiny optical switches, potentially sutable for optical computing.

(From the arXiv Blog @ Technology Review)

A group of researchers in Germany have designed a SPACER that we can expect to hear more about. Their device may eventually be a replacement for the transistor.

A SPASER derives it’s namesake from the LASER:

LASER = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation\ SPASER = Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

The buzzword of the day is “nanoPlasmonics”. Have all sorts of fun with that.

A LASER is neat because (among other things) of the way it generates new photons… in a sort of chain reaction called Stimulated Emission. That chain reaction is responsible for the light’s ‘coherence’.

A SPASER is neat, because it will allow for the use of coherent light for imaging & manipulation @ the nano-scale, where LASERs are ineffective because of their macro-size wavelengths.

Someday in the not too distant future we will use nano-machines to replicate our bodies… oh wait, we do this already. In fact, this trick has been happening for a really long time.

Watch this video! around \~2:30 you get to see DNA “spinning as fast as a jet engine” through an existing nano-machine. What happens when we can give instructions to these machines?

Think about all the cool things that are built with DNA already… imagine if we could make trees grow into buildings, instead of cutting trees apart then reassembling them as buildings.

What do you think would be the most helpful tool for humanity that could be built with this new class of machine?

Sometimes life gets a bit chaotic and jarring, but I was happy to find myself in a better place recently. I felt compelled to write juvenile public poetry about the experience…

Fast Light

Slow and soft and unexplained a spark began its race.

Quick and fast it grew upon the flesh that stayed in place.

Flashed on vines and bark and bones it ripped and bit and tore.

Now dash and fly and scare away before you fuel it more.

Fear and pain and blazing heat, they nip upon your heels?

Better there than else, of course you could become its meal.

Behind you now a forest burnt but bodies breath within.

It’s there, beneath the canopy, that you will live again.

So turn to gaze and look inside, and see the embers glow.

Their softened light presents a new, and emptied space to grow.

This guy just blew my mind! Richard Feynman describes a “clever insect” that knows everything that happens in a pool by standing on the surface of the water. Wouldn’t it be clever if humans could do that, too?

All yours for the low, low price of… six minutes (that will probably blow your mind).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHJ7FmV0M4

By manipulating a virus to carry genetic material for L-opsin production, researchers were able to give red-green sight to two adult male monkeys. The particular type of monkey used in the experiment is known to be unable to see red-green distinction in the natural environment.

From Wired:

Neitz was quick to caution that “there’s a lot of steps before we actually cure a real blindness in people.” Except for the LCA trials, proposed gene therapies for blindness are still in animal-testing stages, if they’ve even progressed that far. The monkeys appear free of any side effects, but safety still needs to be proven. Williams, however, was quicker to speculate. “Ultimately we might be able to do all kinds of interesting manipulations of the retina,” he said. “Not only might we be able to cure disease, but we might engineer eyes with remarkable capabilities. You can imagine conferring enhanced night vision in normal eyes, or engineering genes that make photopigments with spectral properties for whatever you want your eye to see.”

I’ll certainly be interested to see where this technology goes. I remember hearing a bit on NPR a few weeks ago about birds having a 4th color receptor (beyond human’s red, green, blue) in the UV spectrum. I’d like to be able to see a bit more detail in my world…