16 December 2022
Story 1: Today marks the 75th anniversary of the first successful test of the transistor
Source: EDN Magazine Story by Jessica MacNeil
Link: https://www.edn.com/1st-successful-test-of-the-transistor-december-16-1947/
Source: Wikipedia.org
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor
Source: Britannica.com
Link: https://www.britannica.com/technology/transistor
Source: PC Magazine
Link: https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/transistor
Source: Computer History Museum
Link: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/digital-logic/12/273
Source: Autodesk Story by Edwin Robledo
Link: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/how-transistors-changed-electronics-forever/
Source: Intel Newsroom
Link: https://tinyurl.com/3kuu92tp
Source: NOKIA Bell Labs
Link: https://www.bell-labs.com/about/awards/1956-nobel-prize-physics/#gref
Transistor inventors Bardeen, Brattain (standing L-R), and Shockley (seated)
on the cover of Electronics magazine in Sept 1948. Source: Computer History Museum
Image source: Intel
- On this day, December 16, in 1947, scientists at Bell Labs conducted the first successful test of their semiconductor amplifier, the transistor.
- Over time, the transistor totally revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for all the electronic devices in our lives today.
- As one of the most important building blocks of modern electronics, many historians contend it stands as one of the most important scientific inventions in world history.
- But first, what is a transistor?
- In the most fundamental terms, a transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power.
- Another definition is a transistor is a semiconductor device for amplifying, controlling, and generating electrical signals. Transistors are the active components of integrated circuits, or “microchips,” which often contain billions of these minuscule devices etched into their shiny surfaces.
- In its role as a switch, the transistor either prevents or allows current to flow through.
- Here’s what motivated the researchers at Bell Labs to create the transistor 75 years ago:
- An amazing team of scientists at Bell Labs, most notably John Bardeen and Walter Brattain working under William Shockley, wanted to replace the unreliable and hot vacuum tubes [as well as slow electromechanical relays] used in long-distance telephone service equipment with something much more reliable and cost effective.
- The ideal substitute they created to replace vacuum tubes used to amplify weak electrical signals and produce audible sounds was a highly reliable solid-state transistor which offered dramatically smaller size and significantly less power consumption.
- Although today we’re celebrating the first successful test of the transistor, but the team demonstrated the discovery a week later on December 23, often considered the date the transistor was invented.
- In terms of sharing the news with the world officially, it was not until June 30, 1948, at a press conference that Bell Labs publicly announced their invention.
- At the event a spokesman for the Labs claimed that “it may have far-reaching significance in electronics and electrical communication.”
- Nine years later, Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for the first transistor.
- The first commercial applications for transistors were for hearing aids and “pocket” radios in the 1950s.
- In 1959 scientists Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs invented the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor the most widely used type of transistor – this was another major step in the advancement of transistor technology which ultimately laid the foundation for the development of semiconductor chips
- Over time scientists, like those at Fairchild Semiconductors [which was founded in 1957 by scientists who came to California to work with Shockley in Palo Alto but left to start their own venture] and Intel and others, figured out how to super miniaturize transistors and perfect manufacturing of transistors and integrated circuits.
- A semiconductor chip [also called an integrated circuit] is an electric circuit with many components such as transistors and wiring formed on a semiconductor wafer.
- Fast forward to today, and the silicon chips in our smartphones, computers, TVs, cars, you name it, may contain millions if not billions of microscopic transistors on a chip the size of a fingernail, or smaller!
- And recently Intel announced their will be one trillion transistors on their chips by 2030! That’s ten times the number of transistors currently available on modern Central Processing Units, or “brain chips” like the ones that power your laptop, smartphone, etc.
- And here’s how the 75th anniversary of the transistor is of personal family history interest for me.
- My maternal grandfather, Gustave Charles de Coutouly, was on the team at Bell Labs working with William Shockley.
- He was a French scientist who was recruited by the US Army during the first world war to help develop our military’s radio technology.
- He met and married my American maternal grandmother, became an American citizen, the contributed to the field of electronics for decades.
- And regarding William Shockley, after work, my grandfather and Shockley would sometimes go up into the attic of my grandfather’s home in Madison, New Jersey and do research and experiments!
- Unfortunately, Shockley was an ardent eugenicist whose theories of black racial inferiority eventually made him an academic pariah.
- To my knowledge my grandfather did not share his beliefs. I do know from my mother’s stories that my grandmother did not like Shockley – who was famous for having a very difficult personality.
- I’ll never forget the day in the late 1950s [when I was maybe 7 years old] when he was visiting us in California, and he was so excited to give me a “transistor” pocket radio. I was old enough to be thrilled to get this amazing gadget, but too young to understand the significance.
Story 2: Airbus plans to test a hydrogen fuel cell engine on a modified superjumbo jet
Source: Futurism.com Story by Victor Tangermann
Link: https://futurism.com/the-byte/airbus-hydrogen-fuel-cell-jet
Source: Aerospace Manufacturing and Design Story by Eric Brothers
Source: Airbus.com
- Earlier this month aviation giant Airbus announced plans to test an experimental hydrogen fuel cell engine on a modified A380 superjumbo jet.
- Their goal is to see if it’s possible to power a commercial passenger airliner with hydrogen alone.
- Okay, why hydrogen? Well, hydrogen is a clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water as exhaust.
- In addition, an aircraft engine powered by hydrogen fuel cells produces zero contrails – which today account for roughly 2% of global warming.
- Airbus is planning to start test flights in 2026 of its new ZEROe Fuel Cell Engine, which it unveiled at the company’s summit earlier this month.
- Here’s how the ZEROe Fuel Cell Engine works – it uses fuel cells to convert hydrogen into electricity to power its super high-performance propeller engine.
- Airbus says its goal is to launch a fully operational zero-emissions passenger aircraft by 2035.
- Moving to hydrogen could dramatically cut the carbon footprint of air travel, which has historically been responsible for 2.8 percent of global CO2 emissions.
Story 3: Radical new therapy for Parkinson’s will use stem cell transplants
Source: The Guardian Story by Robin McKie
- Recently researchers at Cambridge University announced a groundbreaking new treatment for Parkinson’s disease that uses nerve cells derived from lab-grown stem cells.
- Parkinson’s disease is triggered when nerve cells that supply dopamine to the brain start to die due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
- Dopamine helps a person control movement. When supplies drop in the brain, the result is shaking, stiffness, depression, and other debilitating symptoms.
- But here’s the good news in two parts:
- First, the Cambridge team figured out how to grow stem cells in their lab.
More on that in a moment
- And second, [with help from scientists at Lund University in Sweden] they were able to transform these stem cells into dopamine-producing nerve cells.
- Starting next month, the first experimental transplants of these lab-created dopamine-producing nerve cells will be used to replace those destroyed by Parkinson’s disease in the brains of test patients.
- Being able to create dopamine-producing nerve cells is wonderful but growing stem cells in a lab is also a big deal.
- Remember, stem cells are the body’s raw materials — they are the cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated.
- Being able to grow stem cells in in laboratory cultures is very important as it provides an alternative to the controversial practice of using stem cells from, for example, human embryos or fetuses.
- The Cambridge research team stresses, however, that it will take five or more years before we know if this new approach will become a standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease.