Scientists can turn crystals into reusable electrical conductorsJuly 28, 2017 - 15:09 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - For some time, scientists have been experimenting with crystals to see if they can become a new kind of memory storage. Now, scientists at Washington State University have figured how to make a transparent crystal conduct electricity. What's more, it can be reconfigured and reused multiple times, Engadget said. Researchers have been studying the possibilities of using crystals to conduct electricity, but it required extreme heat. Once the crystals were returned to room temperature, the effect faded within days. But this team was able to introduce electrical conductivity into the crystals at room temperature using light, based on an accidental discovery four years ago. As a result, the effects -- an 1,000x increase in the crystal's electric conductivity -- persist for up to one year. One of the scientists then used a laser to etch a line into the crystal, which carried a current when electrical contacts were placed at both ends. Matt McCluskey, one of the authors in the study that was published in Scientific Reports, compared the result to an Etch-a-Sketch. "It's exciting that it's reconfigurable. It's also transparent," he explains in the press release. "There are certain applications where it would be neat to have a circuit that is on a window or something like that, where it actually is invisible electronics." There's a long way to go before this is a reality -- just for starters, the circuit can only be erased by heating it on a hot plate. That's not exactly practical for a window. But it seems like every lab you see in a sci-fi movie has some sort of transparent electronic computer. It's always fun to see that technology might actually be catching up to what fiction imagines could be the case in the distant future. Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. |