Utah Scientists Believe Brazilian Beetles Hold Key to Faster Computers
| May 23, 2008 |  View for printing |
Naturally possessed of a molecular arrangement that's long confounded material scientists, the scales of an inch-long Amazonian beetle could hold the key to next-generation optical computer chips.
For decades, scientists have dreamed of computer chips that manipulate light rather than electricity. Unlike electrons, photons can cross paths without interfering with each other, so optical chips could compute in three dimensions rather than two, crunching data in seconds that now takes weeks to process.
For now, though, optical computing remains a dream. The chips require crystals that channel photons as nimbly as silicon channels electrons -- and though engineers have been able to imagine the ideal photonic crystal, they've been unable to build it.
Enter a beetle known as Lamprocyphus augustus. In a study published this week in Physical Review E, Purdue University researchers describe how the inch-long Brazilian beetle's iridescent green scales are composed of chitin arranged by evolution in precisely the molecular configuration that has confounded the would-be fabricators of optical computers.
By using the scales as a semiconductor mold, researchers hope to finally build the perfect photonic crystal.
By Brandon Keim
Full Story: http://www.wired.com/science/discove ... onic_beetle
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