Hacking Matter

Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, And The Infinite Weirdness Of Programmable Atoms

By: Wil McCarthy

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Paperback | 14 April 2004 | Edition Number 1

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Programmable matter is probably not the next technological revolution, nor even perhaps the one after that. But it's coming, and when it does, it will change our lives as much as any invention ever has. Imagine being able to program matter itself-to change it, with the click of a cursor, from hard to soft, from paper to stone, from fluorescent to super-reflective to invisible. Supported by companies ranging from Levi Strauss to IBM and the Defense Department, solid-state physicists in laboratories at MIT, Harvard, Sun Microsystems, and elsewhere are currently creating arrays of microscopic devices called "quantum dots" that are capable of acting like programmable atoms. They can be configured electronically to replicate the properties of any known atom and then can be changed, as fast as an electrical signal can travel, to have the properties of a different atom. Soon it will be possible not only to engineer into solid matter such unnatural properties as variable magnetism, programmable flavors, or centuple bonds far stronger than diamond, but also to change these properties at will. Wil McCarthy visits the laboratories and talks with the researchers who are developing this extraordinary technology; describes how they are learning to control its electronic, optical, thermal, magnetic, and mechanical properties; and tells us where all this will lead. The possibilities are truly magical.

Industry Reviews

"The book's science is solid and McCarthy's fervor genuinely infectious. The future never felt so close."

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Computing & I.T.Computer Security Science Science in General Popular Science Computer Science History Earliest Times to Present Day Modern History from 1700 to 1900 Physics Quantum Physics & Quantum Mechanics & Quantum Field Theory

Nuclear Physics Engineering & Technology Technology in General Nanotechnology Mechanical Engineering & Materials Materials Science

Programmable Matter: A Retrospective	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Clarke's Law and the Need for Magic	p. 1
Standing Waves	p. 9
The Play of Light	p. 39
Thermodynamics and the Limits of the Possible	p. 61
Magnetism and Mechanics	p. 89
The Point-and-Click Promise	p. 113
The Programmable City	p. 133
The Future Tense	p. 151
Afterword: Accidental Demigods?	p. 171
References	p. 175
Patent Application	p. 185
Acronyms	p. 208
Index	p. 209
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Hacking Matter

Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, And The Infinite Weirdness Of Programmable Atoms

Industry Reviews

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How to return your order

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