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Researchers Put 'Spin' in Silicon
ccellist writes "Physorg.com is reporting on the University of Delaware and Cambridge NanoTech's experiments regarding 'spintronics,' or the ability to use information about electron spin in atoms of silicon to encode information, much like we use information about an electron's charge state in computers today. 'Spintronics' research hopes to usher in a new age of computer speed and performance by measuring and even controlling the angular momentum displayed by all electrons, and using this information to encode data. Researchers for the first time have successfully conducted the spin of electrons in a custom-made silicon chip, a process known as 'spin transport.'"
In this case I'm not sure if either term "spin" or "angular momentum" is accurate. Perhaps they should create a unique name to describe the currently unknown action. I know they like to name these things after the first person to imagine, define, discover, or prove it, but that hasn't stop naming based on unknowns before. Some examples...
UFO - unidentified flying object, but now used in the positive sense. Think about someone asking "do you believe in UFOs", could you possibly say "no, I don't believe in flying objects that cannot be identified"?
Dark Matter - originally to explain why equations don't calculate out equally, and suggested some unaccounted principle or force that we don't know about or understand. Now, it's actually matter.
SIDS - suden infant death syndrome, once a catch-all phrase put on death certificates that meant unknown cause. Now studies blame various aliments like second hand smoke for Sids. Technically, if second hand smoke was the cause, then it would be the cause itself, and not Sids, but trying to explain that is more difficult than explaining the end of the millenium is on December 31st 2000, not 1999.