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The Ultra-Pure, Super-Secret Sand That Makes Your Phone Possible (wired.com)
The processor that makes your laptop or cell phone work was fabricated using quartz from this obscure Appalachian backwater. From a report: Alex Glover is a recently retired geologist who has spent decades hunting for valuable minerals in the hillsides and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains that surround Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Spruce Pine is not a wealthy place. Its downtown consists of a somnambulant train station across the street from a couple of blocks of two-story brick buildings, including a long-closed movie theater and several empty storefronts. The wooded mountains surrounding it, though, are rich in all kinds of desirable rocks, some valued for their industrial uses, some for their pure prettiness. But it's the mineral in Glover's bag -- snowy white grains, soft as powdered sugar -- that is by far the most important these days. It's quartz, but not just any quartz. Spruce Pine, it turns out, is the source of the purest natural quartz -- a species of pristine sand -- ever found on Earth.
This ultra-elite deposit of silicon dioxide particles plays a key role in manufacturing the silicon used to make computer chips. In fact, there's an excellent chance the chip that makes your laptop or cell phone work was made using sand from this obscure Appalachian backwater. "It's a billion-dollar industry here," Glover says with a hooting laugh. "Can't tell by driving through here. You'd never know it." In the 21st century, sand has become more important than ever, and in more ways than ever. Most of the world's sand grains are composed of quartz, which is a form of silicon dioxide, also known as silica. High-purity silicon dioxide particles are the essential raw materials from which we make computer chips, fiber-optic cables, and other high-tech hardware -- the physical components on which the virtual world runs.
This ultra-elite deposit of silicon dioxide particles plays a key role in manufacturing the silicon used to make computer chips. In fact, there's an excellent chance the chip that makes your laptop or cell phone work was made using sand from this obscure Appalachian backwater. "It's a billion-dollar industry here," Glover says with a hooting laugh. "Can't tell by driving through here. You'd never know it." In the 21st century, sand has become more important than ever, and in more ways than ever. Most of the world's sand grains are composed of quartz, which is a form of silicon dioxide, also known as silica. High-purity silicon dioxide particles are the essential raw materials from which we make computer chips, fiber-optic cables, and other high-tech hardware -- the physical components on which the virtual world runs.
I love how people refer to rural areas as backwaters. Yet folks from the city get all bent out of shape when we call their dirty shitholes what they are, dirty shitholes. Enjoy choking on smog and surface level ozone. Meanwhile I'll enjoy the fresh air and clean water in my "backwater"
A somnambulant train station... that's quite impressive. Not many towns have sleep-walking train stations.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
"ultra-elite deposit of silicon dioxide" "somnambulant train station"
What?
I've always found sand to be course, rough, and irritating. It gets everywhere.
So whack a gigantic tax on it and spread the cash locally. Or just nationalize the whole damn thing. It's not right that a natural resources is going to get stripped mined and the people of the region get nothing for it.
Go the "north sea oil" route that Norway did, and make sure the money actually gets back into the community.
High-purity silicon dioxide particles are the essential raw materials from which we make computer chips, fiber-optic cables, and other high-tech hardware -- the physical components on which the virtual world runs.
It makes the physical components on which the virtual world runs? No shit. What is the target Slashdot article audience these days? They are talking to us like we are damn 3 year olds.
...somnambulant train station
Having an extensive vocabulary: Impressive.
Having a shitty vocabulary and trying too hard to compensate: Priceless!
I recently started a geology hobby. Can anyone elaborate on the specific qualities of this sand? How is the purity measured? Maybe point to some bibliography? I'd love to measure the 'purity' of the sand next time I find myself in a quarry!
Nah, SiO2 is fabricated and sold in China.
This is a test please ignore.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Fairly deceptive, the sand from this source isn't used in the electronics grade silicon, it just makes for cheaper quartz crucibles used in making electronics grade silicon. Nothing really new or noteworthy here, without this sand supply semiconductor costs might rise .00353% or so. Literally nothing compared to R&D, manufacturing tools cost, DI water, electricity, labor, the cost to build a fab, testing, packaging, etc.
I guess it really isn't that much of a secret now. If it ever was.
Edgar Cayce (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Cayce) was considered a somnambulant psychic - he gave prognostications when he was asleep.
If the train station could do that, it's time to call in Mulder and Scully.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Hooray for inanimate silicon rod!
Ignore all those thin-skinned culture warriors whining about word choice, its standard authoritarian distraction designed to keep regular folks from talking about important stuff.
The real issue here is why the people in this place aren't benefiting from the mining? It sounds like the same old "resource curse" that screws over poor people the world over - a couple of very wealthy people come and take without giving back proportionality. Sure, they give a little, baubles basically, to keep everyone distracted but once the resources are gone, everything ends up collapsing even worse than before.
Its not about who said mean words, its about all that wealth being taken by those who have more than enough wealth already.
Spruce Pine was the mica capital during WWII. Then it was a significant source of feldspar. Now pure-ish quartz. There've been some less-than-legal industries there, too.
You want quartz all you need is 6 obsidian blocks and a nether portal.
One of those word-a-day vocabulary calendars for Christmas
I'm from Spruce Pine, NC. And the writer of this article is apparently a jerk.
This is a setup for telling us we are going to run out of sand. Yes like we will run out of aluminum (which literally the most abundant metal in the Earth surface/crust), or water. All it means is an extra purification step. Without an ideal ore it just means we need to do extra purification steps .. like for example desalinating sea water or building pipelines into desert areas. If we ran out of this quartz we can use sand from somewhere else .. it may cost more in terms of energy to purify it thats all. Use solar or nuclear fusion (eventually) or something.
Make your smartphone more powerful! This is the secret "they" don't want you to know! Easy, inexpensive, and foolproof!
Just place your smartphone on the ground and pile some Ultra-Pure Sand (R) (TM) (C) on top of it*. Then jump on it! Really stomp it hard! You want to force as many UPS molecules into your phone as you can; the more the better, so go nuts!!!
Since the processor is made of silica, and sand is made of silica, this is a Cannot Lose, Guaranteed To Win upgrade.
* If it does not work then you didn't use genuine Ultra-Pure Sand. Or you didn't stomp on it hard enough. Or your phone wasn't smart enough to begin with, really, you expected to upgrade a dumbphone?? Either way don't call!
I live 45 minutes away from Spruce Pine, up in the mountains. I drive to the "big city" of Spruce Pine to get groceries, etc. Yet I have fiber optic internet, solar panels, and my own spring and well. And read Slashdot. I'll never move back to cities like Chicago, Memphis, Charlotte. Suck it haters.
Fumed silica is powdered sand. It has a number of uses, one common one is for fillers in other solidifying liquids such as rubber, glue and paint. 'Food-safe' (sterile) fumed silica is a common food ingredient/thickener. You can buy bags of it on ebay.
... but then again, what fun stuff doesn't do that?
Fumed silica bounces. If you hit a bag of fumed silica with your hand, you can feel it vibrate after for a bit, as if it is rubber.
Oh--and also it can kill you (if you breathe it)
You know, Podunk would have been a whole lot better. There are plenty of places I'd certainly call Podunk towns. Places where nothing really ever happens and the people like it that way. Some of the most boring places on Earth really, in the middle of nowhere. I grew up in a Podunk town, everyone called it a Podunk town in town. There really isn't the same negative connotation with it.
Hell, if the author had wanted to show of his vocabulary, he could have used Podunk, instead of his "somnambulant train stations"
A couple of years ago some fat cats in Charlotte tried to buy land to dig a sand mine here near my town of Red Springs NC. It didn't happen: town fathers were rightfully suspicious because of several misleading statements from the purchasers ("We want to build big mansions!"), the history of total environmental disaster aftermaths in nearby counties from similar sand mines, etc.
The word finally was that they wanted the sand (particularly good stuff for top-end glass, they were now saying), and of course they'd clean everything up.
Riiii-ight. Still, one wonders if our sand is as good as that pure quartz stuff up in the mountains. Numerous sand pits around here, part of our ancient history as a shallow sea bottom, but none particularly distinguished.
What I want to know if why do they put silicon dioxide in everything, especially food and vitamin. Is there some nutritional value to sand?
Somnambulant, you say.
But, why? Such grandiloquence is incongruous with the parlance of the writer.
https://www.google.com/search?q=backwaters
noun
plural noun: backwaters
* a part of a river not reached by the current, where the water is stagnant. - ok, not so nice
* an isolated or peaceful place. - accurate and nice
* a place or condition in which no development or progress is taking place. - accurate
It would be nice to hear real news. After all, the word is based on the adjective "new." Oy.
"But it's the mineral in Glover's bag -- snowy white grains, soft as powdered sugar -- that is by far the most important these days."
Sounded like we were about to start discussing something else here.
This article writer sounds like they are trying to be a novelist instead.