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Science can sometimes just blow my mind. This is one of those times.
Researchers at IBM last week stored a bit, the smallest form of computer memory, into 12 atoms. They make the point of saying that this is significantly less than today’s hard drives that use about one million atoms to store a single bit of information. They say that the ability to manipulate matter by its most basic components could lead to our ability to build smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices.
The usual route of technological advancement is to start out big and work your way down to smaller devices. The team at IBM flipped that notion on its head and started at the smallest they could go: a single atom. From there, they tested it to see how many atoms they could get before it would take to a single bit.
The researchers demonstrated magnetic storage that is at least 100 times more dense than today’s hard drives and solid state drives. Think of the load times off of something that compact. It would create a huge advancement in computing!
The team thinks that future applications of nanostructures built one atom at a time that apply their unconventional form of magnetism called antiferromagnetism could allow people to store 100 times more data in the same space of today’s disk drives.
“The chip industry will continue its pursuit of incremental scaling in semiconductor technology but, as components continue to shrink, the march continues to the inevitable end point: the atom. We’re taking the opposite approach and starting with the smallest unit — single atoms — to build computing devices one atom at a time.” Andreas Heinrich, the lead investigator into atomic storage at IBM Research – Almaden, in California, said.
For those wondering how they did it, IBM used ferromagnets which have similar properties to the magnets inside refrigerators. The ferromagnets align the spins of all of bound atoms in a single direction. The problem came from the bits on the atomic level that could strongly affect their neighboring bits. It took precise control on the part of the IMB researchers to control the interactions between the bits.
The researchers then used a scanning tunneling microscope to atomically engineer a group of twelve coupled atoms that stored a bit of data for hours at low temperatures. Taking advantage of their magnetic spin directions, they were able to pack the magnetic bits much closer together than was ever previously thought. They did all this without the atom structure becoming unstable.
The lead image shows a magnetic byte imaged five times in different magnetic states to store the ASCII code for each letter of the word THINK, IBM’s corporate mantra since 1914. The team achieved this by using 96 iron atoms, one bit was stored by 12 atoms and there are eight bits in each byte.
For those who want to know more or would prefer an audio-visual explanation of how they did it, IBM has you covered.
Based on a James Leo Herlihy novel, British director John Schlesinger’s first American film dramatized the small hopes, dashed dreams, and unlikely friendship of two late ’60s lost souls. Dreaming of an easy life as a fantasy cowboy stud, cheerful Texas rube Joe Buck (Jon Voight) heads to New York City to be a gigolo, but he quickly discovers that hustling isn’t what he thought it would be after he winds up paying his first trick (Sylvia Miles). He gets swindled by gimpy tubercular grifter Rico “Ratso” Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) but, when Joe falls in the direst of straits, Ratso takes Joe into his condemned apartment so that they can help each other survive. Things start to look up when Joe finally lands his first legit female customer (Brenda Vaccaro) at a Warhol-esque party; Ratso’s health, however, fails. Joe turns a final trick to get the money for one selfless goal: taking Ratso out of New York to his dream life in Miami. One of the first major studio films given the newly minted X rating for its then-frank portrayal of New York decadence, Midnight Cowboy was critically praised for Schlesinger’s insight into American lives, with the intercut mosaic of Joe’s memories and Ratso’s dreams lending their characters and actions greater psychological complexity. While they may have been drawn by the seamy content (tame by current standards), the young late ’60s audience responded to Joe’s and Ratso’s confusion amidst turbulent times and to the connection they make with each other despite their alienation from the surrounding culture. Midnight Cowboy became one of the major financial and artistic hits of 1969, winning Oscars for Best Picture (the first for an X-rated film), Best Director, and former blacklistee Waldo Salt’s screenplay. Though the one-two punch of Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate (1967) proved Hoffman’s range and Voight’s Joe Buck made him a star, both lost Best Actor to classical cowboy John Wayne for True Grit. The film was later re-rated R by the MPAA. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
I often wear an iPod nano as a watch, but with Android wrist-top devices that offer more functionality hitting the market, it’s feeling a little behind the times these days. Something like Antonio De Rosa’s new iWatch2 concept design is much more in keeping with what I’d expect Apple to offer in the near future of wearable computing devices.
De Rosa says the watch’s imaginary specs include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the latter to provide a steady feed of data from a connected iPhone or iPad, along with a standalone RSS reader and front-facing camera. He also adds an LCD projector to the list, because why not?
But Apple also is notorious for keeping its product lines tight, so such a device, which would admittedly probably have limited appeal initially (will iPhone buyers really want to spend an additional $200+ for what’s essentially a secondary display?) likely isn’t a top priority.
Smiling is one of the easiest and cheapest methods to enhance ones quality of life for a multitude of reasons. Smiling alters our mood, can make us look younger, makes us appear more successful, and relieves stress.
Want to be more prosperous? Smile! Even though this may be hard to believe, it has been shown that individuals that smile more often than not are generally more pleasant and outgoing. Those who appear happier in their day to day tasks are less likely to be passed up for promotions. It’s something to consider. Your next step up the ladder may be only a smile away.
Smiling also causes people to look younger and appear more attractive. When you smile the muscles in the face lift creating an appearance of youth and vitality. This makes you look and feel good, and when you feel great you will draw people towards you by presenting an appearance of happiness. And smiling is contagious. When you see others smile, it makes you want to smile. In turn when others see you smile it makes them want to smile as well. Everyone likes to be near others that make them feel energetic and happy so spread the love by spreading a smile across your face!
