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Accident Could Lead To Better Digital Cameras

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the digital-chamagne dept.

Dave Bullock (eecue) writes "Scientists at UCLA have accidentally created a material that will some day give us better, faster, cheaper, more flexible digital cameras. I toured their lab and shot a photo essay for Wired. Personally I'm looking forward to a quantum-dot embedded camera sensor someday soon. 'Graduate student Hsiang-Yu Chen was working on a new formula for solar cells when something went wrong. Instead of creating electricity when hit with light, the conductivity of the material she was working with changed. "The original purpose [was] to make a solar cell more efficient," says Chen. "However, during the research we found the solar cell phenomenon [had] disappeared." Instead, the test material showed high gain photoconductivity, indicating potential use as a photo sensor.'"

12 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Nice accident... by oskard · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scientific accidents have brought some of the most groundbreaking discoveries - vulcanized rubber, X-rays, penicillin

    I like how they compare 3 things that have been unimaginably advantageous to the human race to something that will allow me to view better-quality porn.

    --
    Sigs are for Terrorists.
    1. Re:Nice accident... by jornak · · Score: 0, Funny

      Oh trust me, those other three things have sexual applications. ;)

    2. Re:Nice accident... by GuyverDH · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude...

      As anyone who's ever viewed porn at higher resolutions / definition can attest, it doesn't make it better, it brings out every flaw in greater detail - making you wish you'd never upgraded....

      --
      Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
    3. Re:Nice accident... by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ok, the rubber and the penicillin are obvious...

      but X-rays???

    4. Re:Nice accident... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I like how they compare 3 things that have been unimaginably advantageous to the human race to something that will allow me to view better-quality porn.

      How is this rated funny, real people are trying to earn a living with porn. You insensitive clod.

      Parts of the people may be real, other parts are not!

    5. Re:Nice accident... by mgblst · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is this your reason for avoiding real life contacts as well? Or do you close your eyes when you get intimate with a women.

    6. Re:Nice accident... by linzeal · · Score: 2, Funny

      I just close my eyes and hope they are women.

      --
      An Education is the Font of All Liberty
  2. That's great... by decalod85 · · Score: 4, Funny

    but the assignment was to make a better solar cell. That's an 'F' for you, Chen!

    1. Re:That's great... by Dice · · Score: 3, Funny

      Personally, I've been striving for +5, Flamebait.

    2. Re:That's great... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

      (And the lab is still working on better solar cells.)

      And after many years of creating better photo sensors for cameras, low-leakage transistors for embedded computers, denser hard drive storage, a material for denser optical disks, and a new formula for Coke that people actually like better than the old one, but never a single improvement in solar cell technology, they give up in disgust.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  3. Hi, Xiao Hsiang-Yu by srussia · · Score: 3, Funny

    Congrats, but--"Pix, or it didn't happen!"

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  4. Summary of Slashdot posts by Danathar · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. Dup!

    2. We've been doing that for YEARS...nothing special move along.

    3. Duh...

    4. Unless I invented it myself I don't believe it.

    5. Dick Cheney will probably patent this and sit on it.