Making Computer Memory From a Virus 196
An Ac writes, "By coating 30-nanometre-long chunks of tobacco mosaic virus with platinum nanoparticles, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have created a transistor with very fast switching speed. They say it could eventually be used to make memory chips for MP3 players and digital cameras. A device fitted with such a virus-chip would access data much more quickly than one using flash memory."
Buzzzzzwords! (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't wait to see how quickly this tech is misunderstood by politicians and eco-warriors!
mp3 players don't ned it (Score:2, Insightful)
Why isn't this suitable for general purpose memory, or cache?
Very fast switching speed???? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ya know what I'm sick of.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ethical concerns (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:mp3 players don't ned it (Score:5, Insightful)
It does when I update it, or just use it for generic data-transfer.
Re:Ya know what I'm sick of.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ethical concerns (Score:1, Insightful)
Humans are part of the animal kingdom like any other animal is. We need to eat and need to live.
To do this, certain sacrifices need to be made. If a lion kills for its lunch, he really doesn't think about wether or not the creature aimed for has pain or not. He kills as fast as possible so he can eat as fast as possible, because the hyena's are close to take his food from him.
In this aspect we are much more gentile towards the animals we use for food. We already do much to lower the "terror aspect" that cattle has to endure at the end of their life. No matter though how much we try, there always will be that pain and suffering.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that your philosophy about life, or as you say it: "everything has a right to live it's own life, free from human exploitation" might be stained about that you apparently think that we are much different from other animals. We are not. We love as other animals. We fight as other animals, and we wage war as other animals. We cheat, bribe, and make sacrifices, just as (m)any other animal.
Temperature? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:until you catch the virus (Score:1, Insightful)
Doesn't anybody ever actually read these links? Oh wait, this is
Re:Ethical concerns (Score:2, Insightful)
I think of it more as a mutualism (or the very least, commensalism). The sole purpose of a virus is to replicate. Many viruses do that at the detriment to its host. But what better way to replicate than to become beneficial to the host (in this case, by storing data) such that the host actively "breeds" more of the virus? It's akin to saying you're "subverting" the bacterial flora in your gut for your own digestive purposes.