Magical BEANs: New Nano-Sized Particles Could Provide Mega-Sized Data Storage

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100917085626.htm



ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2010) — The ability of phase-change materials to readily and swiftly transition between different phases has made them valuable as a low-power source of non-volatile or "flash" memory and data storage. Now an entire new class of phase-change materials has been discovered by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley that could be applied to phase change random access memory (PCM) technologies and possibly optical data storage as well. The new phase-change materials -- nanocrystal alloys of a metal and semiconductor -- are called "BEANs," for binary eutectic-alloy nanostructures.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. That's neat.

But aren't you concerned that the electricity going through these embedded nanoparticles might transmute the silica into iron?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. That's it, I'm turning you in to the authorities. Your days of constantly

heckling me and kicking sand in my face are over. You will be served a virtual subpoena by the powers that be, you will pay mister, you will pay dearly. On the other hand I might just let you go and continue to make a fool of yourself, that would be justice of the highest order.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Why so touchy?

I'm simply asking you a valid scientific question based on the science that you've chosen to post.

[DCKit]

5. Still waiting for all the copper wire in my walls to turn to gold, too. n/t

[derby378]

4. All haters aside, I'm interested in where this goes from here

If it turns out to be bullshit, so be it, but if it works and remains stable, cool.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Hey there derb, you ever seen the photon entanglement that

Toshiba was a workin on several years ago?? It is unhackable because the data doesn't appear on the bus until it arrives at the depot.

http://www.toshiba-europe.com/research/crl/qig/Press2006-01-12-entangledlight.html



Toshiba Research Europe Ltd., Cambridge Research Laboratory

Scientists Find Practical Technology For Entangled Light

Cambridge 12 Jan 2006

Breakthrough enables long-distance secure communication, high resolution imaging and quantum computing.

Researchers at Toshiba Research Europe Ltd (TREL) and the University of Cambridge have discovered that light possessing quantum entanglement can be generated by a simple semiconductor device. It could lead to long-distance, highly-secure optical networks safe from hacking, more sensitive medical diagnosis, more powerful computer chips and scalable quantum computing.

Unlike normal light in which the photons (the ‘particles’, or quanta, of light) can be regarded as distinct, the new source emits a stream of photons in pairs at regulated times with ‘entangled’, or interrelated, properties. The breakthrough will be reported today in the scientific journal Nature.

The new entangled photon source is similar to an ordinary semiconductor light source, but contains a tiny, nanometer-sized quantum dot that emits the coupled photons. TREL researcher and lead author, Dr Mark Stevenson, said: “we discovered that only dots with a certain shape can emit photon pairs which are entangled and that the required shape can be engineered by controlling its growth process.”