WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The quest for a single theory that unites all of the universe's fundamental forces has thus far eluded physicists, but that has not stopped a team of them from clearing the way for nanotechnologists while they look for it.
The group, which includes Purdue University's Ephraim Fischbach, has recently completed research that improves our understanding of how tiny objects placed very close together can influence each other. Their experiment, which involves the behavior of a minuscule gold ball as it moves over different substances, shows that gravity behaves exactly as Isaac Newton predicted, even at small scales. Unfortunately for those in search of the so-called "Theory of Everything," the finding would seem to rule out the exceptions to his time-honored theories that physicists believe might occur when objects are tiny enough.
But in the process, the team has measured another, less familiar, force that does influence small objects, and at those scales is more influential than gravity itself. Their precise observations of this Casimir force could make life easier for nanotechnologists, whose tiny creations will be subject to its effects.
"We have measured the Casimir force with greater accuracy than has ever before been achieved," said Fischbach, who is a professor of physics in Purdue's College of Science. "Because this force can push small objects around, a clearer conception of its effects will be useful to the nanotech industry. Anyone creating a nanodevice will have to consider the Casimir force, just as a car manufacturer has to consider tire friction and air resistance."
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17194
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