Nanopod: World's smallest radio created

The news is out, scientists at the University of California at Berkley have built the world's smallest radio which is microscopic and can't be seen by the naked eye. The radio runs with a single carbon nano-tube one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. Radio enthusiasts have already christened it the nano-pod.

a real nanopod worlds smallest radio from a single

It takes only a battery and earphones to tune into any radio station in the world. Welcome to the world of nano-technology, where a radio is only one ten-thousandth of the diameter of human hair. Now can you see it, no you can't, can you hear it, of course you can. Built by a team of top-physicists led by Prof. Alex Zettl, at the University of California in Berkeley, news about the nano-radio was published first in a scientific research paper in the science journal Nano Letters.

The nanoradio, currently only a receiver, is 100 billion times smaller than the first commercial radios, and the physicists began building it to mark the 100th anniversary last year of the first voice and music radio transmission.

Happy about the achievement the scientists are exulting. Their Jubilant team leader, Professor Alex Zettl said,

We were just in ecstasy when this worked. It was a fantastic experience.

According to Zettl, Nano-radio, can also work as a transmitter and has is useful in a number of applications. It can be used in cell phones to microscopic devices that sensed the environment and relayed information via radio signals.

Zettl further said,

The nano-tube radio may lead to radical new applications, such as radio-controlled devices small enough to exist in a human's bloodstream,

Nanotubes are rolled-up sheets of inter-locked carbon atoms that form a tube so strong that some scientists have suggested using a nano-tube wire to tether satellites in a fixed position above the earth.

This is perhaps the first step when nano-technology is being used in consumer electronics. Soon we will have nano-TV, DVD players, microwaves and other gadgets powered by nano-technology, which will prevent use of plastics and other environmentally hazardous materials.

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