Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Science

Aussie, Finnish Researchers Create a Single-Atom Transistor 96

Posted by timothy from the for-small-transitions dept.
ACKyushu writes "Researchers from Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), University of New South Wales (Australia), and University of Melbourne (Australia) have succeeded in building a working transistor whose active region comprises only a single phosphorus atom in silicon. The results have just been published in Nano Letters. The working principles of the device are based on sequential tunneling of single electrons between the phosphorus atom and the source and drain leads of the transistor. The tunneling can be suppressed or allowed by controlling the voltage on a nearby metal electrode with a width of a few tens of nanometers."

Comment Old news to Theoretical Computer Scientists! (Score 1) 421

by Ben1220 (#30040932) Attached to: What Computer Science Can Teach Economics
Economists and Complexity Theorists work very closely together nowdays, especially around the area of algorithmic game theory. In fact there have been much more recent results in this area, for example I just read an interesting paper on the price of anarchy in network routing. http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~gvaliant/papers/SR_sub2.pdf Many of the most popular complexity theory blogs often urge their readers to visit relevant economist conferences. Personally, I love this area, right at the intersection of algorithms, complexity theory, discrete mathematics, graph theory, operations research, optimization and game theory. Every single one of those fields is awesome by themselves imo, so algorithmic game theory is right up there for me.
Security

Symantec Wants To Use Victims To Hunt Computer Criminals 139

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the cyber-vigilante-network dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Business Week reports that security experts plan to recruit victims and other computer users to help them go on the offensive and hunt down hackers. '"It's time to stop building burglar alarms to keep people out and go after the bad guys," says Rowan Trollope, senior vice-president for consumer products at Symantec, the largest maker of antivirus software. Symantec will ask customers to opt in to a program that will collect data about attempted computer intrusions and then forward the information to authorities. Symantec will also begin posting the FBI's top 10 hackers and their schemes on its Web site, where customers go for software updates and next year the company will begin offering cash bounties for information leading to an arrest. The strategy has its risks as hackers who find novices on their trail may trash their computers or steal their identities as punishment. Citizen hunters could also become cybervigilantes and harm bystanders as they pursue criminals but Symantec is betting customers won't mind being disrupted if they can help snare the bad guys. "I'm convinced we can clean up the Internet in 10 years if we can peel away the dirt and show people the threats they're facing," says Trollope.'"

Comment ironic (Score 1) 205

by Ben1220 (#28992495) Attached to: Twitter, Facebook DDoS Attack Targeted One User
Hackers tried to censor one guy by knocking out his twitter for a few hours. The irony of this is that, now his Twitter is getting a new follower every minute. Take a look for yourself, it was 1420, I pressed refresh and it was at 1433. Epic failure for the hackers, especially if they payed for the bandwidth.
Robotics

Submission + - Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man 4

Submitted by Strudelkugel
Strudelkugel writes: The NY Times has an article about a conference during which the potential dangers of machine intelligence were discussed. " Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society's workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone. Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences. " The money quote: "Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years," Dr. Horvitz said. "Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture."

Comment Re:Bill of Rights. (Score 1) 247

by Ben1220 (#28727567) Attached to: Australian Website Bans ... Australians
It would be nice! It would also put a stop to nonsense like this filter, do you ever wonder why stuff like this never gets off the ground in USA, despite the massive number of brain dead Fundies? They have actually tried, I remember reading about it a year ago or so, but its always deemed unconstitutional instantly. Thanks to their bill of rights.

Comment Re:Algorithms and Data Structures (Score 1) 537

by Ben1220 (#28674029) Attached to: Which Language Approach For a Computer Science Degree?
Absolutely. This is the difference between an average programmer / code monkey and a great programmer. People don't really see Computer Science as an academic field of knowledge. It is not learning about how to use computers, its not even about learning how to code, its the chemisty of data, the physics of computation. Computer Science was developed before computers even existed. Learning the fundementals of computer science, including algorithms and data structures, automata theory, algorithm analysis, theory of computation, information theory, cluster and grid computing, artificial intelligence, graph theory, combinatorics ect will place you light years ahead of programmers who know only the syntax of a few languages, and believes that counts as computer science.

Slashdot Top Deals

It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.

Close