Sounds and Rhythm

The Nano Guitar

Compiled By Nazia Ahmed

THE world's smallest guitar is 10 micrometers long - about the size of a single cell -- with six strings each about 50 nanometers, or 100 atoms, wide. Made by Cornell University researchers from crystalline silicon, it demonstrates a new technology for a new generation of electromechanical devices.

The guitar has six strings, each string about 50 nanometers wide, the width of about 100 atoms. If plucked - by an atomic force microscope, for example - the strings would resonate, but at inaudible frequencies. The entire structure is about 10 micrometers long, about the size of a single human blood cell.

Using high-voltage electron beam lithography at the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, one of only two similar machines in this country, the structures were sculpted out of single crystal silicon on oxide substrates. A resist is used to pattern the top silicon layer. The oxide that is underneath this layer can be selectively removed using a wet chemical etch. The result: freestanding structures in silicon crystal.

A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. For comparison, the diameter of a human hair is about 200 micrometers, or 200,000 nanometers.

BDC holds National Camp of Debating

Ryan Nabil

BANGLADESH Debating Council (BDC) recently held the first phase of its national camp to select the debaters for the team of Bangladesh to participate in World School Debating Championship (WSDC). The debate competition is going to be held in Qatar in 2010. A total of 45 debaters were attended the camp and they had been selected on the basis of their performance in the 5th BDC Pre-Worlds, hosted by Maple Leaf International School.

There were 9 events in the two-day long camp at American International University of Bangladesh, AIUB started on July 24. The first day started off with an impromptu debate with the motion “This House believes that International Universities should charge both foreign and local students equally.” The debaters had two more events on the first day which are public speaking round and another debate.

The second day, the debaters went through four rounds of intense group discussion. After the group discussion and lunch, the campers had two debates; one impromptu and the other prepared. In this impromptu debate, they were marked not only on the performance basis but also the preparation and participation basis in terms of preparing the strategy of the debate.

At the end of the second day, the winners' names were announced for the second phase of the national camp. The second phase is going to be taken place approximately within a week.