Itsy chain turns bitsy gears.The 19th-century chain drive remains popular in bicycles, car engines, and industrial machinery. Now, designers at Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories, which is managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation), is a major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratory with two locations, one in Albuquerque, New in Albuquerque, N.M., have reinvented the component at a microscopic scale. Ed Vernon and his colleagues sculpted sculpt v. sculpt·ed, sculpt·ing, sculpts v.tr. 1. To sculpture (an object). 2. To shape, mold, or fashion especially with artistry or precision: thin layers of silicon and silicon dioxide silicon dioxide: see silica. (SiO2) A hard, glassy mineral found in such materials as rock, quartz, sand and opal. In MOS chip fabrication, it is used to create the insulation layer between the metal gates of the top layer and the silicon elements below. to make a chain that moves gears in a system (above) where the links and teeth are the size of biological cells. Such tiny gadgetry gadg·et·ry n. 1. Gadgets considered as a group. 2. The design or construction of gadgets. Noun 1. gadgetry - appliances collectively; "laborsaving gadgetry" might someday operate shutters for tiny cameras, Vernon notes. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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