News tagged with silicon
Flexible paper robots
(PhysOrg.com) -- These inexpensive robots can stretch, bend and twist under control, and lift objects up to 120 times their own weight. Being soft, they can apply gentle and even pressure, and adapt to varied ...
16 hours ago |
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Inspired by steel, nanomanufacturing gets wear-resistant carbide tip
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and IBM Research - Zurich have fabricated an ultrasharp silicon carbide tip possessing such high strength ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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New tool for analyzing solar-cell materials
To make a silicon solar cell, you start with a slice of highly purified silicon crystal, and then process it through several stages involving gradual heating and cooling. But figuring out the tradeoffs involved ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Feb 07, 2012 |
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All set and ready to glow
A new technique that paves the way for manufacturing affordable LED light bulbs is to be exploited in the UK, in a deal that researchers say could have a dramatic impact on carbon emissions.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Japanese entrepreneurs aim for Silicon Valley
For an emerging generation of Japanese innovators, the dream isn't a job for life at a big company. They have new ambitions, and they're determined to go places. Especially Silicon Valley.
Feb 03, 2012 |
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Chunk of Facebook profit tied to game company Zynga
Facebook Inc., whose initial public offering is slated to be one of the biggest debuts in U.S. stock market history, has disclosed its heavy reliance on a single customer - Zynga Inc.
Feb 02, 2012 |
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Researchers move graphene electronics into 3D
In a paper published this week in Science, a Manchester team lead by Nobel laureates Professor Andre Geim and Professor Konstantin Novoselov has literally opened a third dimension in graphene research. Their ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Feb 02, 2012 |
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Silicon Valley braces for Facebook millionaires
As Facebook goes public, Silicon Valley is buzzing in anticipation of the "instant millionaires" that may soon be looking for ways to spend their newfound wealth.
Feb 02, 2012 |
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Status update: Facebook to go public, raise $5B
(AP) -- Facebook made a much-anticipated status update Wednesday: The Internet social network is going public eight years after its computer-hacking CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the service at Harvard University.
Feb 01, 2012 |
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Researchers find molybdenite may be better suited for integrated logic circuits than graphene
(PhysOrg.com) -- Because of its physical limitations, silicon use in tiny integrated logic circuits will have to one day soon be replaced by something that can work in a smaller state. That is, if we want ...
Belgium advises women to have PIP breast implants removed
Belgium's health authorities on Wednesday advised women with defective breast implants made by French firm PIP to have them removed.
Feb 01, 2012 |
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Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers have built the first carbon nanotube (CNT) transistor with a channel length below 10 nm, a size that is considered a requirement for computing technology in the next decade. Not ...
VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raises $1.5B to invest
(AP) -- A venture capital firm started by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Andreessen has raised an additional $1.5 billion to invest in promising technology startups.
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Microscopy reveals 'atomic antenna' behavior in graphene
Atomic-level defects in graphene could be a path forward to smaller and faster electronic devices, according to a study led by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Venezuelans line up to switch PIP breast implants
(AP) -- The office of plastic surgeon Ignacio Sousa is so packed that women are lined up outside the door. College students in their 20s, housewives in their 40s, middle-class office workers: nearly all are ...
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Silicon
Silicon (pronounced /ˈsɪlɨkən/ or /ˈsɪlɨkɒn/, Latin: silicium) is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon. As the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, silicon very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature, but is more widely distributed in dusts, planetoids and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. On Earth, silicon is the second most abundant element (after oxygen) in the crust, making up 25.7% of the crust by mass.
Silicon has many industrial uses. It is the principal component of most semiconductor devices, most importantly integrated circuits or microchips. Silicon is widely used in semiconductors because it remains a semiconductor at higher temperatures than the semiconductor germanium and because its native oxide is easily grown in a furnace and forms a better semiconductor/dielectric interface than any other material.
In the form of silica and silicates, silicon forms useful glasses, cements, and ceramics. It is also a constituent of silicones, a class-name for various synthetic plastic substances made of silicon, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, often confused with silicon itself.
Silicon is an essential element in biology, although only tiny traces of it appear to be required by animals. It is much more important to the metabolism of plants, particularly many grasses, and silicic acid (a type of silica) forms the basis of the striking array of protective shells of the microscopic diatoms.
For more information about Silicon, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.