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Using Proteins to Build NanocomputersHow low can we go? This is the question challenging scientists who want to build ever-smaller electronic components. As famed physicist Richard Feynmann said in 1959, 'there is plenty of room at the bottom,' meaning at the atomic or nanometric scale. But even Feynmann could only guess at how we might eventually build things 'down there.' As current lithographic techniques for etching semiconductor circuits rapidly approach their physical limits, scientists are looking for new and less expensive ways to fabricate circuits at infinitesimally small scales. NASA scientists have discovered a new tool that may help accomplish this goal - proteins. The basic building blocks of life may be harnessed to build computers and sensors on the nanoscale. Proteins provide self-assembling structures that can be engineered to build ordered arrays of quantum dots.
Document ID
20040081040
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
Laufenberg, Larry
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
November 13, 2003
Subject Category
Nonmetallic Materials
Funding Number(s)
OTHER: UPN 704-00-00
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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