Return of the Vacuum Tube

sciencehabit writes "Peer inside an antique radio and you'll find what look like small light bulbs. They're actually vacuum tubes — the predecessors of the silicon transistor. Vacuum tubes went the way of the dinosaurs in the 1960s, but researchers have now brought them back to life, creating a nano-sized version that's faster and hardier than the transistor (abstract). It's even able to survive the harsh radiation of outer space."

Comments

Gives a whole new meaning...

[Toe, The]

...to the phrase "a series of tubes."

Sweet

[Hatta]

Now I can have a tube amp in my mp3 player.

But in outer space...

[Anonymous Coward]

aren't they just called "tubes"?

Re:Old is new

[SomeJoel]

Keep seeing all these whippersnappers nowadays wearing the same clothes I wore years ago.

You should have thought of that before you donated them.