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DUBLIN NANOTECHNOLOGY STARTUP Adama Innovations has been given a €750,000 investment boost to ramp up manufacturing of its first product – a miniscule probe forged from solid diamond.
The company, which started life as a spinout from Trinity College Dublin-based AMBER research centre only last year, will get the seed funding through Enterprise Ireland’s high-potential startups programme.
Its initial offering will be the diamond tool which can be used in atomic-force microscopy – a type of analysis that takes place at the sub-microscopic, or nanoscale, level.
The tip of the probe, made from diamond because of the material’s extreme durability, is more 10,000 times narrower than a human hair.
The technology can be used to look at the surface of any solid matter, including cancer cells or viruses, in minute detail, which makes it powerful tool in the hands of medical researchers and other industries.
Where’s all this going?
Despite its early development stage, Adama is hoping to top €2 million in revenue and employ 10 high-tech manufacturing workers within the next 3 years.
Enterprise Ireland’s Brian O’Neill said the company had already shown great progress and its diamond probe was a “remarkable product” for understanding man-made and biological materials.
This has innovative uses such as giving insight into how antibiotics or other drugs interact with cells in the body,” he said.
The company’s co-founders include TCD physics lecturer and nano-mechanics expert Graham Cross, and its latest funding came from a syndicate made up of Enterprise Ireland, NDRC VentureLab and Irrus Investments.
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Surely a petrol engine would be faster than a search engine?
No. Just don’t.
??
They already can do this with two people in the car. Plus human error kills many more in car accidents than drive-by shootings do. Even in the USA.
Hence why their report comes to the conclusion that they will likely reduce the number of fatalities on the roads.
And they needed a new report for this? They also fear that ‘terrorists might program the cars to drive with bombs inside them’. Again, we already do this, you just need a ‘holy’ book and a sexually repressed young male (add some social and political issues and numerous candidates will pop up).
Gee, the FBI are real ‘glass half empty’ guys, aren’t they?
“The good news is that the FBI report accepts that, overall, Google’s cars will likely reduce the number of accidents and fatalities.”
Neither glass empty or glass full kind of guys, but rather guys who tell you that the glass is full but has a risk of spilling drink everywhere kind of guys.
More like guys that identify, groom and equip marginalised individuals with a half-full glass to ‘attack’ high profile targets.
I’d imagine driverless cars would be subject to sticking within the speed limit. Would be pretty pathetic if someone tried to do a drive-by then speed away from the scene of the crime at 50kph!
Not as pathetic as commenting on an article you haven’t read! =D
“The fear is that criminals might hack the cars to override its safety features or that terrorists might program the cars to drive with bombs inside them.”
Just so you don’t have to search for it.
Yeah. I skipped over that bit admittedly. Thought didn’t even occur to me because to me its like arguing that bank accounts shouldn’t have been made accessible online simply because they would become hackable.
Measures can always be taken to mitigate these risks. A need for proper secure systems enforced through traffic security regulation and auditing is obvious. It would be foolish and niave to leave it up to google or any other company to regulate themselves in this area.
Why would driverless cars stick to the speed limit anyway? If all cars are driverless they’ll probably be travelling at very high speeds because GPS & algorithms will ensure that cars avoid each other. Speed limits are related to the speed your average driver should be able to handle depending on the conditions. A computer would be able to handle far higher speeds so there would be no reason not to increase limits greatly (outside residential zones or where pedestrians would be a factor).
Eventually when everyone has a driverless car, yes. Until then it would be a danger to conventionally driven cars. Imagine trying to merge into a motorway when the traffic is made up of driverless cars!
Also, I’d only see the removal of speed limits for motorways, there are pedestrians to consider as well.
Car sex is gonna become a regular occurrence.
I can just see all these cars buzzing around @ 25mph after the pubs close!!
Search for bank. Click -> I’m feeling lucky
If only Stringer Bell had thought of this……..
It would be computerised, I’m sure they would have a remote override option.
Anyway, if you wanted a getaway “driver” would you really want one that follows the speed limits and stops when it’s supposed to.
have your say