This struck me as pretty interesting because of an interview I did a few months ago with a professor at (the) Ohio State University. He developed a plastic that polarizes the spin of electrons, hopefully paving the way for plastic semiconductors. He thought they might be available for some applications in 5-10 years (on the consumer side; he didn't speculate about when the government would have operational technology).
He mentioned that one of the applications of these would be for military use--the semiconductors could be woven into clothing for use reading heart rates, wound location, blood coagulation, that sort of thing. He also suggested that the semiconductors could be used in displays housed in pens: a screen could be unrolled from the barrel (not unlike a tape measure), which would also house a battery and transmitter for receiving data. It might be handy for maps.
He thought plastic semiconductors wouldn't be terribly expensive, either, which is always good news. (Naturally there's greater context than what we've described here--e.g., the ability to create inexpensive hard drives with RAM seek times.)
Slashdot Mirror
When taken the right way, such a statement actually smacks of a gravity we don't often associate with our 42nd president.
We surely are a self-destructive people. I'm not sure why the terrorists just don't let us do the job ourselves.
It seems to me that often the way we find cures is to make people sick. Vaccines, after all, are just weakened diseases.
This struck me as pretty interesting because of an interview I did a few months ago with a professor at (the) Ohio State University. He developed a plastic that polarizes the spin of electrons, hopefully paving the way for plastic semiconductors. He thought they might be available for some applications in 5-10 years (on the consumer side; he didn't speculate about when the government would have operational technology).
He mentioned that one of the applications of these would be for military use--the semiconductors could be woven into clothing for use reading heart rates, wound location, blood coagulation, that sort of thing. He also suggested that the semiconductors could be used in displays housed in pens: a screen could be unrolled from the barrel (not unlike a tape measure), which would also house a battery and transmitter for receiving data. It might be handy for maps.
He thought plastic semiconductors wouldn't be terribly expensive, either, which is always good news. (Naturally there's greater context than what we've described here--e.g., the ability to create inexpensive hard drives with RAM seek times.)