Drunkard's Walk Forums

Australian researchers create a transistor with only 7 atoms.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

So the next step is finding a way to for mass production.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

So give it five to ten years...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Less, Bob. Nanofacturing technology is just around the corner. Besides, this isn't the smallest one that's ever been made. Two other groups have made one-atom transistors. Anyone else think we're well on our way to a technological singularity?

Quote:The researchers are a long way from a commercial process because the tiny transistor they created was handmade. The team used a scanning tunnelling microscope to move the phosphorus atoms into place.

That sounds like a super hero origin story waiting to happen.
---
Jon
"And that must have caused my dad's brain to break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge!"

Herr Bad Moon Wrote:

Quote:The researchers are a long way from a commercial process because the tiny transistor they created was handmade. The team used a scanning tunnelling microscope to move the phosphorus atoms into place.

That sounds like a super hero origin story waiting to happen.

Either that, or a horrible industrial accident. I'm hoping for the former.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

There's a difference between the two?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Oh, certainly. There are dozens of superheroes whose origins don't have anything to do with any sort of industrial accident, and there have been dozens of horrible industrial accidents which don't seem - so far - to have produced any superheroes (or supervillains) that we've yet heard about.

There does, however, seem to be a disproportionate correlation between the two types of event...