Small science has big potential, say scientists
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The world's tiniest radio is a step closer to reality.
US scientists have unveiled a detector thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a human hair that can translate radio waves into sound.
According to a University of California team, the study marks the first time that a nano-sized detector has been demonstrated in a working radio system.
Made of carbon nanotubes a few atoms across, it is almost 1,000 times smaller than current radio technology.
Peter Burke and Chris Rutherglen incorporated the microscopic detector into a complete radio system.
They used it to transmit classical music wirelessly from an iPod to a speaker several metres away from the music player.
Full details of their findings will be published next month in the American Chemical Society's Nano Letters.
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk