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Sooner
or later the laws of physics are going to
trump Moore's Law, at least as far as today's
silicon technology is concerned. Moore's Law
says computer chips double in performance
every 18 months, but faster chips mean smaller
circuits and useful circuits can only be so
small. The question is when will silicon reach
the end of its road. According to a specialist
in thermodynamics, it could be sooner than
we think.
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Remote
monitoring aids data access
Accessing huge amounts of data over the Internet
can be slow, especially if you want to interact
with the information in real-time. The solution
may be to tap into the way many scientists, doctors
and businesspeople view the information -- literally.
Visualization software turns oceans of numbers stored
on hard drives into understandable images displayed
on a computer monitor. Sandia scientists have shown
that piping a computer monitor's video input over
the Internet rather than sending the data itself
can speed long distance data relationships.
Metal
stores more hydrogen
Launching the era of clean hydrogen energy could
come down to finding the right metal to hold the
fuel. Storing hydrogen could be more practical than
generating it on-the-fly. One thing holding it all
back is no one has figured out practical ways of
storing useful amounts of hydrogen. A new substance
points to a promising possibility.
Device
demos terabit storage
When it is no longer possible to cram more bits
into magnetic disk drives, ferroelectrics could
pick up the load. Ferroelectric materials' atoms
are electrically rather than magnetically aligned.
Switching from ferromagnetics to ferroelectrics,
however, means finding a way to fabricate tiny bits
and a figuring out how to read and write them. A
research team has come up with both.
Plastic
process produces puny pores
By dipping a particular plastic in water of a certain
acidity, MIT researchers can control how porous
the plastic becomes. Fine control over the size
of these microscopic pores means the plastic can
be used as an antiglare coating and in biotechnology.
It could even have a role in fighting cancer.
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