Monday, November 05, 2007

A Single Molecule Radio

Nanotube Radio
We have constructed a fully functional, fully integrated radio receiver from a single carbon nanotube. The nanotube serves simultaneously as all essential components of a radio: antenna, tunable band-pass filter, amplifier, and demodulator. A direct current voltage source, as supplied by a battery, powers the radio. Using carrier waves in the commercially relevant 40-400 MHz range and both frequency and amplitude modulation techniques, we demonstrate successful music and voice reception.

An Enigmatic Object near the Center of the Galaxy

The enigma of GCIRS 3 - Constraining the properties of the mid-infrared reference star of the central parsec of the Milky Way with optical long baseline interferometry

On the second page of this preprint there's a fascinating image of the center of our galaxy in mid infrared, highlighting GCIRS3, the hottest and most compact of the sources of thermal dust irradiation in that vicinity. It appears that this object is a cool dust-forming carbon star.