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The Nanopowers of Spinach 53

Posted by Zonk from the i-yam-what-i-yam-and-that's-all-that-i-yam dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Ohio University physicists have used a simple molecule of chlorophyll taken from spinach to develop a complex nanobiological switch. They used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to image chlorophyll-a and then injected it with a single electron to manipulate the molecule into four positions. The researchers say this biological switch might be used in future applications for green energy, technology and medicine. Read more for additional pictures and references about this spinach-based biological switch."
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The Nanopowers of Spinach More

The Nanopowers of Spinach

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  • Yet *another*... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by daveschroeder ( 516195 ) * on Saturday September 09, 2006 @07:45PM (#16073194)
    ...Roland Piquepaille [slashdot.org] submission allowing him to pimp his blog, just three days after this doozy [slashdot.org] about "nanotechnology", no less? (Hint: it wasn't about nanotechnology at all, and didn't address even the basic "safety" questions it fallaciously purported to address.)

    While I'll concede that this particular submission actually appears accurate and interesting (no doubt by accident, judging from his prolific (and annoying) submission history [slashdot.org]), when will we be able to filter this guy out?
    • I didn't mind this one. It was nice to see something come out of my alma mater other than the recent security problems.

    • tage as "pigpile" (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      tag as "pigpile" to warn users not to click on Roland's ads.

      Hopefully soon there will be a way to filter stories based on tags!

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 )
        How will that warn people?

        When the tag cloud is produced (we aren't just tagging for our own amusement are we?) if everyone tags him as pigpile, then we are gonna have a whole lotta bacon filling up the screen...

        It will give him more revenue because people might actually follow through on the articles.

        Just a thought, obviously you can tag however you want...

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by MadEE ( 784327 )
        I am sure it may have meaning to you and those whom have seen you tell people to label it as such but otherwise it sounds a lot like non-sense. How about tagging it with something with clear meaning even to those who don't know what pigpile means such as like "blog-spam".
        • How about tagging it with something with clear meaning

          Well, I've been using this [slashdot.org] Seems clear enough. Has no effect at all on the editors, but makes be feel marginally better.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ne0n ( 884282 )
        I'd set all "pigpile" to -1 and ignore 'em forever. This feature's on my Christmas wish list.

    • With apologies to Frankie Laine...

      Roland, Roland, Roland
      Though those clicks are swollen
      Keeps them blog ads rollin'
      Rawhide!

      Through science, tech, and weather
      Text rip'd together
      Hopin' those geeks will see his site!
      All the things he's gettin'
      Good traffic, views, and bitchin'
      He'll sign them checks will all of his might!

      Sign 'em on, pick 'em up
      Pick 'em up, sign 'em on
      Sign 'em on, pick 'em up
      Rawhide!

      Count 'em out, write 'em in
      write 'em in, count 'em out
      Count 'em out, write 'em in
      Rawhide!

    • That isn't the same Roland. Whether or not that account is related or not, I don't know. In a previous post the user said that it was to fight the Real Roland Piquepaille. I don't care if that's the case or not. But it is this user [slashdot.org] that is the one submitting the stories. That user is called "rpiquepa".

    • Jesus. This is the first time I've heard of it, but it does in fact look pretty crazy.

      I mean, the "related links" even has a link to Roland's blog!

      - RG>

  • I'm psychic... The replies will be... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09, 2006 @07:52PM (#16073222)
    • 90% bitching about Roland
    • 8% Popeye jokes
    • 1.99999% GNAA Trolls
    • 0.00001% discussion of article

  • A biological switch based on spinach... (Score:3, Funny)

    by 10100111001 ( 931992 ) on Saturday September 09, 2006 @07:52PM (#16073226)
    It could be used to build a robotic popeye.

  • Green Energy! (Score:4, Funny)

    by rolfwind ( 528248 ) on Saturday September 09, 2006 @07:54PM (#16073232)
    The researchers say this biological switch might be used in future applications for green energy...


    Indeed!
    • Tomatoes were originally used but congress cancelled funding for what was obviously a communist energy source.
  • This is just stream of consciousness so don't be alarmed if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, if any.

    Flexible, grown computer chips: the future as we have yet to know it? Bio-engineered to grow with the right inputs and outputs to grow massively parallel wafers or discs. Using the tools nature has spent billions of years developing we can build computers which outperform any handheld we have today by orders of magnitude, just as long as you remember to give them light and water. What you call a hydr
  • They used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to image chlorophyll-a and then injected it with a single electron to manipulate the molecule into four positions.
    Wow... wonder if those guys ever saw this [imdb.com] movie.
  • I read the first line of the summary, and it was obvious that this was another Roland Piquepaille submission.

    Then I looked up--and I was confirmed, but could there be any doubt, particularly after the last "nanotech" article he posted about a week ago? He posts articles that seem like they are written by a college freshman. They aim for an air of profundity, but the reveal him to know nothing at all about what he is writing about.

    I'm off to watch something more brainy that Piquepaille's pseudo-science: the

  • Popeye would be proud

  • Puhleease: Put Roland Piquepaille blog elsewhere (Score:5, Insightful)

    by viking2000 ( 954894 ) on Saturday September 09, 2006 @08:57PM (#16073563)
    I would like to just suggest a link to Roland Piquepailles blog somewhere where those who are interested can click. And *no more articles please*

    I read /. to get real news and facts, and see discussions from people with insight.
    Roland Piquepailles submissions are usually vague quasiscience or fiction.

    Is this latest news just "Yet Another Wishful Nano-manipulation", or are the something new here? The article, unfortunately, gives no added insight.

    You should mod this up if you agree or mod away as flamebait/offtopic/troll if you dont agree, but at least mod it.
  • The nanobiological green-energy sporting sailor man!
  • All Bobcats represent! Wo0T!

    Congrats to Prof. Hla, as well, for keeping OU in the headlines.

  • sweet, I'm totally ditching my athlon for a spinach leaf processor with 4 position switches instead of binary...well it IS possible in theory.
  • Popeye marine nanobot , the next generation processors
  • The source plant for the chlorophyll is irrelevant - it could be from any of a large number of plants. The paper mentions the source plant once - Roland, and most other posters, seem to fixate on this.

    It's interesting that the paper mentions "green" energy as well.

    While the idea is interesting there may be some practical limitations. The experiments were done at 4.6 Kelvins.

    I think the coolest part is: "Our experiments were performed by using a home-built low temperature STM"

  • I think that the characterization of chlorophyll as a simple molecule is highly misleading. It can be obtained from plants, yes, but the total synthesis in the laboratory is lengthy, complex, and at the time required the effort of an organic chemistry grand master, Robert B. Woodward. Cf. Woodward, RB, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 82, 3800 (1960). Also, I really don't understand the craze over nanotechnology. I've been working with molecules at the nanoscale for years (I am currently a chemist at a biotech
    • The first hyping of nanotechnology focus primarily on nano-scale robots, describing how they could do anything, from curing disease to terraforming planets. Many people still have this fixation on just that part of nanotech, even though it is unlikely to appear any time soon.

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