Interested In Science?

I remember posting sometime late last year about the potential for even more memory in your iPod (160Gb just isn’t enough!?!) - Atomic Memory Storage…(01/09/2007) - but here is yet another hint at what the future has in store for us…

Published this week in Science a team at IBM have declared they have a novel way of successfully storing fast and stable memory in something called ‘racetrack’ memory. The idea is that memory is stored on nanowires, and electrons are pushed around the track, moving domains which can be charged one way of another, ultimately as 1 or 0 (binary storage) depending on which way the domain is magnetized.

The journal article is cited below, but the following link should take you to an introductory article in science which explains the science (and controversy it’s causing) with a bit more detail.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/320/5873/166?rss=1

Hayashi, M., Thomas, L., Moriya, R., Rettner, C., Parkin, S.S. (2008). Current-Controlled Magnetic Domain-Wall Nanowire Shift Register. Science, 320(5873), 209-211. DOI: 10.1126/science.1154587

interestedinscience.com © 2008

Ok, completely off the beaten track for me and into the world of theoretical physics. Here is a journal from scientists in Scotland and Germany claiming to be able to create the event horizon of a black hole - you know, where light and matter (and my spare car key I assume) are lost forever.

It is believed by some that it will allow them to study the physics of the particles created in/emitted from the black holes we know are more regularly situated in space, as these are invariably surrounded by dust, gases and other space-borne artifacts.

This image can be seen in its original context at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~ulf/fibre.html.

I love it. I’m scared by it but I am amazed at what they are attempting.
For a more thorough read follow the link above or check out the paper…
The article is appearing in science.

Philbin, T.G., Kuklewicz, C., Robertson, S., Hill, S., Konig, F., Leonhardt, U. (2008). Fiber-Optical Analog of the Event Horizon. Science, 319(5868), 1367-1370. DOI: 10.1126/science.1153625

interestedinscience © 2008