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New Material For Fast-Change Sunglasses, Data Storage

Posted by kdawson on from the epileptics-need-not-apply dept.

sciencehabit writes "'Researchers have developed a material that almost instantaneously (30 ms) changes from clear to dark blue when exposed to ultraviolet light, and it just as quickly reverts to clear when the light is turned off. The new material, one of a class called photochromics, could be useful in optical data storage as well as in super-fancy sunglasses.'" A comment to the article notes some of the potential dangers of quick-change sunglasses.

5 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Slow Memory by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    30ms is pretty slow by memory standards.

    Could you imagine a CD burner which takes 30ms per bit?

    It'll need to get a LOT faster to be used in any kind of processing or storage medium.

    1. Re:Slow Memory by erayd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      30ms is pretty slow by memory standards.

      Could you imagine a CD burner which takes 30ms per bit?

      It'll need to get a LOT faster to be used in any kind of processing or storage medium.

      Who says you have to write things serially? Admittedly write latency would suck, but you can still get a phenomenal throughput if you write a whole bunch of bits in parallel.

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  2. Re:Something missing? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course there might be missing data from the article, but they should explain a bit more.

    That part was written in photochromic ink, you need to get a copy of the original publication and expose it to UV light in order to find out those details.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  3. Obligatory Douglas Adams reference... by LordAlced · · Score: 5, Funny

    But does it turn dark in the presence of danger?

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  4. Re:epileptics-need-not-apply. Why not? by value_added · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not to mention waking up in the morning and turning round to face the hideously ugly person you picked up at the bar the previous night.....

    Your sister isn't that ugly.