This little bit of news isn't really about any fundamental technological breakthrough, and besides, most of our readers will know about it already. But it is neat and it may have desirable effects unrelated to its technical significance. As most of you no doubt know, the letters "IBM" have been written in xenon atoms with a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM). This major feat of literary miniaturization was achieved by cooling a nickel crystal and some xenon atoms to 4øK and then grabbing and dragging around the xenon atoms on the surface, arranging them to spell out "IBM." How do you "grab" an atom with an STM tip? Well to quote from the paper in Nature (344, 524 (5 Apr 1990) by D. M. Eigler and E. K. Schweizer describing their nanowriting exploits, this is done by "increasing the tip-atom interaction by lowering the tip toward the atom; this is achieved by changing the required tunnel -8 current to a higher value, typically in the range of 1-6x10 amps, which causes the tip to move towards the atom until the new tunnel current is reached." Is that clear? Just what does writing on this scale really mean? Well, as Alcor's Dr. Mike Perry pointed out, if you took a nickel from your pocket and increased its size until it had the same diameter as the Earth, the letters "IBM" written in xenon atoms would be about 10 feet high. How's that for minaturization? An example of more relevance to the cryonicist is the one which we show on this month's cover; the STM images produced by Eigler and Schweitzer shown on the same scale as the biological structures which comprise our cells: DNA, cell membrane, ribosome, hemoglobin. . . . The technical tour de force demonstrated by Eigler and Schweitzer isn't the kind of breakthrough achievement that cryonicists and nanotechnologists constantly chatter about -- at least not technologically. But it has had other effects. For many technically and scientifically sophisticated people this is graphic, understandable proof that you can really do nanotechnology! Several friends and acquaintances have commented to me "My god, you were right; you really can move atoms around! Just think about it!" Nanotechnology maven Ralph Merkle of Xerox PARC reports the same kind of phenomenon. In the long run, the widespread press coverage associated with the publication of "Positioning Single Atoms With A Scanning Tunnelling Microscope" should not be ---------------------------------------------------------------------(8)
underestimated. Just seeing "IBM" spelled out in letters 50 high, made up of easily resolvable individual xenon atoms makes it all seem so real. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Nevada Cryonics Association:
Inception Notes
by Russell E. Whitaker My home, Las Vegas, Nevada, has many attractive features. It is a city of almost a million people and it is among the fastest growing in the nation. And it is only four hours' driving time from Alcor's Southern California facility.