Proteins Help Researchers Build a Flash Memory Device

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Proteins Help Researchers Build a Flash Memory Device

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday October 2, 2013 @05:22AM from the not-a-significant-source-of-nutrition dept.

ckwu writes "Researchers in Japan and Taiwan have demonstrated the first working flash memory device made using proteins as scaffolding to build a 3-D nanoparticle structure. Compared to current fabrication techniques, using proteins to arrange nanoparticles could enable the design of smaller memory devices and more complex, multilayer electronics. According to the researchers, their mulitlayer flash memory had twice the capacity of a conventionally made single-layer device."

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Great for the paranoid. by ColdWetDog · 2013-10-02 05:24 · Score: 2

Worried about the government getting your data? Fry up your memory and serve it on crackers.
MMMM. Protein.

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Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
1. Re:Great for the paranoid. by ColdWetDog · 2013-10-02 05:39 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Actually, it's kinda interesting tech. They took a fairly easy to understand molecule, Ferritin, which binds iron in the blood, made some little critters with modified ferritin so it bound silicon instead and used them as a lattice to set up a flash memory cell.
  Can't make tofu out of it, but perhaps a cell phone. I can't wait for marketing to get a hold of the tech - "organic protein cell phone" or some such. Maybe Apple can invent it.
  
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  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
2. Re:Great for the paranoid. by Bengie · 2013-10-02 08:16 · Score: 1
  
  An Organic Apple?
3. Re:Great for the paranoid. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-02 08:24 · Score: 0
  
  The subtle take home message for this, is that it is self-assembling, nanoscale technology. Take a look at any pictures of the natural world under a microscope (confocal , electron, afm) and this is part of humanities improving our "mastery of things downthere" (paraphrase Feynman).
Mmmmmm. by djupedal · 2013-10-02 05:24 · Score: 2

chips!
1. Re:Mmmmmm. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2013-10-02 05:56 · Score: 1
  
  chips!
  Now with fish, apparently.
  
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  Ezekiel 23:20
Let me be the first to nickname them... by Mr.+Neutron · 2013-10-02 05:28 · Score: 2

"Protein bars."

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dinner: it's what's for beer
1. Re:Let me be the first to nickname them... by Nkwe · 2013-10-02 07:00 · Score: 1
  
  "Protein bars."
  The snack that improves memory when consumed in nibbles and bytes.
2. Re:Let me be the first to nickname them... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-02 19:39 · Score: 0
  
  What's wrong with sperm disk and memory eggs?
Not that it's not great by i+kan+reed · 2013-10-02 05:28 · Score: 3, Interesting

But it sounds like something out of a Random Tech story generator.
Subject:
"[TechList A] helps [Tech Professionals List B] [Fix/Improve/Build/Cure] [Tech List C]"
Body
"[Tech professional List B] have [devised/demonstrated/published] a new method to use [Tech List C] in the process of [Fix/Improve/Build/Cure]ing [Tech List A]. [Major Scientific Journal/Regular publication] shows unprecedented improvement in [Tech List A]. According to [Tech Professional List B], performance of [Tech List A] has [doubled/tripled/become consumer ready] compared to the old version of [Tech List A]".
1. Re:Not that it's not great by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-02 05:42 · Score: 0
  
  David Miscavige is squirreling the tech!
Just great...another gimmick. by Vegan+Cyclist · 2013-10-02 05:33 · Score: 2

Now even microchips are falling for the Atkins/Paleo high-protein fad!
Protein by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-02 05:50 · Score: 0

So what happens when the protein spoils and rots?
1. Re:Protein by JazzLad · 2013-10-02 06:32 · Score: 1
  
  Planned obsolescence?
  
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  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
2. Re:Protein by iggymanz · 2013-10-02 07:09 · Score: 2
  
  you had Read the Freeping Small Text Under the Diagram in the Article (RTFSTUTDINA), you'd see they only use the protein as temporary scaffold to lay down iron oxide particles, and then burn the protein away with ozon and UV. So the protein only stinks while its getting fried away
manufacturing costs? by SeanInSeattle · 2013-10-02 06:04 · Score: 2

This doesn't matter until the manufacturing costs are either less than or equal to the current cost to manufacture flash devices. Its a long road from scientific achievement to higher capacity flash storage for the masses.
Well, I drink a protein shake when I'm working! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-02 06:09 · Score: 0

What? Protein shake is not the same thing?
You don't take Ritalin in order to stay competitive on your job at your Silicon Valley startup? Or even at your .NET job at Big Corp?!
I mean, if we in the First World are going to have to compete with really desperate folks who will do the same job for a tenth of our pay, then what are we to do?
Yes, I know "war on drugs" and all that none sense, but if the powers that be want to stay in power, then they need to make productivity enhancing drugs legal.
Misleading Summary by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-02 06:26 · Score: 0

Multi-layer fabrication techniques already exist and are either in the ramp-up stage or already in products; I don't remember which at the moment. The interesting part here is the small scale (~8nm, which is significantly smaller than the current best lithography processes) and the high write-erase cycle count, the latter more so than the former, as ordinarily write-erase cycle count goes down as the transistors get smaller.
One question by Gravis+Zero · 2013-10-02 06:33 · Score: 1

What's the read/write time?!

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Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Brotein by Uncle+Mark+(AUS) · 2013-10-02 12:56 · Score: 1

Proteins help researches...build the muscle, MANG!?!