China getting ahead in nanotechnology
In China the worldwide financial ‘crisis’ means annual growth of only 7 or 8%. Nonetheless, China’s nanotechnology industry continues to develop impressively, now producing 1mm thick speakers. The nanospeaker looks like a sheet of projector cellophane, if anyone remembers that stuff.
Professor Shoushan Fan, Tsinghua University’s Director of Nanotechnology suggests people could stick these sheets on the rear window of a car for an improved audio experience. The technology works through heating and agitating microscopic tubes in the film, so that they vibrate and cause sound waves to be transmitted.
The news that the Chinese computer industry is considering manufacturing at the nanometre (a billionth of a metre) scale means applications in the military and pharmaceutical spheres cannot be far behind. China has billions in its war chest to invest in its growing computer industry – year-on-year investment is growing at 20%, and Lenovo recently became the world’s second largest computer manufacturer by shipment.
For now, American and Chinese researchers already produce nano-robots which can alter organisms’ genetic code. Ideas for the future include exhaust gas-absorbing clothes. For everyone else stronger competition from far eastern companies in the computer industry should help drive prices down and speed up the development process of the industry as a whole.
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