NOTE: Severely delayed “current event” blog to follow. This was written at the start of the the tech difficulty, but could not be posted until now.
Researchers are working on processors far smaller than micro-electronic circuits of today. They are close to having individual atoms hold information by having an on/off, or zero/one state. Presently they can link two hydrogen atoms and have them act as such a circuit for binary information storage and processing. I thought this would be of interest to the Professor, seeing as
A) Atoms and molecules were simply ideas used to make a basis for calculations until he connected the mystery of Brownian motion to the actual existence of molecules, and calculated their sizes.
B)This new breakthrough may lead to practical quantum computing, and we all know how he felt about that little revolution he started.
C) All electronics stem from his pioneering work with the photo-electric effect.
Albert Einstein did not live to see transistors revolutionize computing and electronics in general by replacing bulky vacuum tubes. Those transistors are uselessly gigantic in today’s world, and now our own microprocessors seem to be heading toward a similar extinction. Vacuum tubes brought advances that amazed the masses, prehistoric as they might seem today. Transistor based technology, quaint as it is, filled our ancient ancestors with a sense of awe barely half a century ago. You can still get a rise out of an audience by giving them a better idea of the actual scale of microcircuits and what’s going on within them and to create them.
One thing is certain. This atomic scale tech will be passe’ one day, and most likely soon. Awesome today and bygone tomorrow. Albert would simply say it’s all relative.
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