English physicists managed to obtain a substance whose particles are held near each other only by light. As reported by New Scientist, the scientists were able to bond approximately 100 polystyrene beads, each 400 nm in diameter, into a two-dimensional structure.

Colin Bain of the University of Durham and Christopher Malor of the National Institute for Health Research report that their discovery could provide a simple way to make and rearrange nanostructures.

The method they discovered was called “optical binding”.

“This is a completely new way to create nanostructures, and we expect to obtain more complex samples. However, we are still far from understanding the physical nature of the phenomenon,” Bain said.

The scientists used a dual laser beam and a prism with nanoparticles on top. When the rays reached the top of the prism, they were reflected, but a small amount of energy, known as an "evanescent wave", held the particles together.

Scientists cannot yet say where such technology could be used. However, it is believed that it can be used to control the flow of liquids through nanovalves, which will be useful, for example, in medicine.

In the future, the British hope to learn how to control the growth of crystals using a laser beam. And not only them. For example, Kishan Dholakia from the University of St. Andrey is confident in the possibility of such control of crystal growth. “My dream is a laser pointer in the “hand” of a scientist, and the particles will do the rest themselves,” says the scientist. Dholakia promises to publish the results of his complex experiments in 2006.

Nanotechnology is currently developing rapidly. Their use can give impetus to almost all existing areas of science and technology. For example, the use of “nanorobots” to treat diseases is being seriously discussed by doctors.

The development of nanotechnology in Russia is not moving as intensively. In 2006, a new department of physics of nanosystems was opened at the physics department of Moscow State University , but Gazeta.Ru was never able to contact it. As they said in the secretariat of the Faculty of Physics, the department currently has neither premises nor a telephone, but the very fact of the appearance of such a department at Moscow State University is already encouraging.

Last April, participants in the nanotechnology roundtable - parliamentarians and scientists - asked the Russian Federal Assembly to allocate $500 million in 2006 for nanotechnology research. It is unknown whether Russian scientists received the required money. At the same time, according to the forecast of the US National Science Foundation , by 2015 the annual turnover of the nanotechnology market will reach $1 trillion.

Light collected into particles