Sensible Erection | World’s Smallest Steam Engine Is Size of Fog Droplet

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

World’s Smallest Steam Engine Is Size of Fog Droplet

quote [ Engineers have made a tiny engine a few micrometers wide, or roughly the size of a water droplet found in fog. ]

I don't think this has been posted yet. Saw it of all places on Troy Polamalu's (NFL player) Twitter.

Also, you MUST check out the Rob Lowe Lifetime movie trailer in comments.

Skyrim meme all by one guy
http://www.addfunny.com/pictures/funny/32112.html

Please, internet, stop with the arrow to the knee jokes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSDfxde8fSg&feature=player_embedded

Another Skyrim Cartoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-CS8L_8LBk&feature=player_embedded

Some Street Art
http://www.streetartutopia.com/?p=2014

[sci&tech] [by bltrocker@5:11amGMT] [+3 Interesting]

Comments

bltrocker said @ 5:11am GMT on 4th Jan

kitten said @ 5:15am GMT on 4th Jan [Score:2 Informative]
skyrim has taken over my life

Fenny said @ 5:56am GMT on 4th Jan
Has the kitten become a Khajiit?

Misanthrope said @ 6:02am GMT on 4th Jan
Someone's a little behind.

GordonGuano said @ 12:01pm GMT on 4th Jan
Bend over and I'll show you a little be-wait, that doesn't really work, does it?

arrowhen said @ 3:21pm GMT on 4th Jan
Bend me over, I'll show you a little behind.

ComposerNate said @ 1:13pm GMT on 4th Jan
I'm currently level 25.

papango said @ 2:59am GMT on 5th Jan
My husband is playing it at the moment, and it's taken over his life too. I'm looking forward to playing it when he's finished. We decided that we should play it separately so the cat didn't starve to death.

IronMahatma said @ 3:06am GMT on 5th Jan
Aw, why did he get to have first crack? Also, if he's playing it the way I am (i want to do *everything*), you may never get a chance.

papango said @ 3:50am GMT on 5th Jan
Oh, we thought this one through. He will play it doing everything in one play through (maybe re-starting a couple of times), and then probably put it aside. It will take ages, but I have Batman to be going with. And Mass Effect if takes that long.

I will play it multiple times. I like to charge through the first time learning everything. Then play it again with that knowledge, and then again to get all the prizes. And then maybe again if there's new content. I play again from the beginning to the end for the new content to fully integrate it into the story. I've only just finished with Fallout New Vegas, and I got that for Christmas last year.

The hardest bit is that I don't want to know too much about it before I play, and gaming is one of the things we talk about a lot.

sacrelicious said @ 5:17am GMT on 4th Jan
looks like bacteria will finally be able to enter the steam age!

papango said @ 6:00am GMT on 4th Jan
How awesome is the Tiny Train Robbery going be? With little bacteria riding other bacteria chasing the train.

theolypse said @ 1:47pm GMT on 4th Jan [Score:2]
Water bear cavalry.

swiggy said @ 5:20am GMT on 4th Jan
steampunk and nanotech, combining to make something not quite as good as either.

sacrelicious said @ 5:30am GMT on 4th Jan [Score:1 Funny]
hey, with nano-steam technology we will finally be able to traverse great distances, like living rooms or driveways, in about a week, rather than the six months it currently takes!

swiggy said @ 5:23am GMT on 4th Jan

crom said @ 5:35am GMT on 4th Jan
I don't understand how they use one of the infrared lasers to limit the bead's motion in one direction. Can anyone explain how this works?

Chop-Logik said @ 6:14am GMT on 4th Jan [Score:4 Funny]

structured_spirits said @ 6:26am GMT on 4th Jan
I'm still confused as to why it's considered a "steam engine" when there's no phase change or really any water as the working fluid.

bltrocker said @ 6:40am GMT on 4th Jan
I have no idea why Wired changed "heat engine" to "steam engine". Chalk it up to less than stellar science reporting?

crom said @ 5:03pm GMT on 4th Jan
"The World's Smallest Steam Engine" is the title of the University of Stuttgart's press release, so it's not entirely Wired's fault.

moriati said @ 7:26am GMT on 4th Jan
Maybe because of the Mercury?

bltrocker said @ 6:37am GMT on 4th Jan [Score:2 Informative]
If I'm not mistaken, they were using one laser for what is referred to as an optical tweezers. If you concentrate strong laser light on a certain point, the center of the resultant hourglass shape (beam waist) will contain a strong electrical field. This field will trap dielectric particles, allowing you to hold a very small object in one place.

Grain of salt and all of that. I'm but a lowly PhD student, and my daily interactions with optics consist of turning on a mercury light source and finding glowing neurons to poke under a 40x.

ckfahrenheit said @ 7:17am GMT on 4th Jan
see "brownian motion" in article about "engine"
think it's connected to a cuppa hot tea

moriati said @ 7:29am GMT on 4th Jan [Score:2 Insightful]
For years, SE had been capable of generating finite quantities of pr0n ... but had failed to produce the elusive infinite inpr0nability drive.

endopol said @ 8:42pm GMT on 4th Jan
Two to the power of one-hundred thousand against one cup and falling...

theolypse said @ 1:50pm GMT on 4th Jan
I don't get this arrow to the knee stuff. Are people saying that a lot? If so, why?

arrowhen said @ 3:18pm GMT on 4th Jan [Score:2 Informative]

theolypse said @ 2:07am GMT on 5th Jan
Bethesda depresses me.

Ankylosaur said @ 3:47pm GMT on 4th Jan [Score:4]
Gentlemen, I present the future of cat ownership: robotic telepresence

f00m@nB@r said @ 8:28pm GMT on 4th Jan [Score:1 Underrated]
http://www.wimp.com/flyingrays/