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Transistor Made From Cotton Yarn

Posted by samzenpus on from the your-socks-want-more-ram dept.

MrSeb writes "Altering the very fabric of technophilic society, a multinational team of material scientists have created electric circuits and transistors out of cotton fibers (abstract). Two kinds of transistor were created: a field-effect transistor (FET), much like the transistors found in your computer's CPU; and an electrochemical transistor, which is similar but capable of switching at lower voltages, and thus better suited for wearable computers. Cotton itself is an insulator, but by using various coatings, the team from Italy, France, and the United States was able to make conductor and semiconductor cotton 'wires' that retained most of their flexibility. The immediate use-cases are clothes with built-in sensors (think radiation or heartbeat monitors), but ultimately, think of how many thousands of interconnections are in every piece of cotton clothing — you could make a fairly powerful computer!"

6 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Overclocking Risk? by El+Torico · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I overclock a CPU made from this would it burst into flame?

    --
    In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
  2. A cotton transistor takes the prize by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Funny

    Over the years I've spoken with many electrical engineers and software engineers, and heard much technical lore, but a cotton transistor? That is a yarn worthy of a prize.

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    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    1. Re:A cotton transistor takes the prize by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now just wait a cotton-picking minute. Anything that yields a crop of puns this good must surely be fabricated.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:A cotton transistor takes the prize by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Funny

      Anything that yields a crop of puns this good must surely be fabricated.

      I'm not sure that I fully take your meaning. Are you suggesting that they need to spin up manufacturing? Or are you trying to gin up a controversy because you think this yarn about cotton transistors is made up out of whole cloth? If it really works, there could be enormous potential in high-speed communications and backplanes, interfacing to fibre, and switching fabrics, for example. This could be an interesting investment opportunity. If it takes off, they'll need some good marketing, and a spokesman. I think that guy from the Matrix would be perfect! What was his name..... Agent Smith.... Hugo something?

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      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  3. perfect for by cold+fjord · · Score: 5, Funny

    foldingclothes@home*

    *With apologies

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  4. Re:Punchcards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It actually predates Turing all the way back to Hollerith taking his inspiration from the Jacquard Loom

    Do you mean Jean Loom Jacquard, Captain of the USS Interweave?