Friday, October 9, 2009

Nobel Prize in Physics

This week the Nobel Prize in Physics was given to Charles K. Kao " "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication" and Willard S. Boyle, and George E. Smith "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor."

Please share your thoughts and questions on this topic.
  • How might their findings/conclusions change or affect your life?
  • Why were their findings important?
  • What made them become interested in studying this topic?
If your not sure what "semiconductors" or "fiber optics" are or what the affects may be on your own, (I'm talking to all of you, you probably don't know a lot about this topic), DO SOME RESEARCH and include a link in your comment. See if you can find any interview with the scientists or information/pictures of their research that helped you understand it better
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 12, 2009 at 3:10 PM

    Don't have any idea what optical communication is?

    LOOKIE HERE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_communication

    -Brianne

    ReplyDelete
  2. PeppOctober 12, 2009 at 6:59 PM

    was the last paragraph a type-o? it's the same thing in the chemistry blog.
    *-PHR-*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mrs. WilliamsonOctober 13, 2009 at 8:52 AM

    Woops. Thanks for catching the typo; I've got it fixed now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PeppOctober 14, 2009 at 8:13 PM

    Your welcome.
    *-PHR-*

    ReplyDelete
  5. KateOctober 16, 2009 at 5:12 PM

    If you are pondering on the question to what a semiconductor is visit this link for an explanation found at http://www.siliconfareast.com/whatissemicon.htm.

    "A semiconductor is a material that behaves in between a conductor and an insulator. At ambient temperature, it conducts electricity more easily than an insulator, but less readily than a conductor. At very low temperatures, pure or intrinsic semiconductors behave like insulators. At higher temperatures though or under light, intrinsic semiconductors can become conductive. The addition of impurities to a pure semiconductor can also increase its conductivity."

    This is interesting and I've never heard of it before. It sounds useful though, I wonder where it is used.

    ReplyDelete
  6. KateOctober 16, 2009 at 5:20 PM

    I bet this invention keeps things from over-heating. I'm going to go check.

    I found this:
    http://www.howstuffworks.com/diode.htm

    So it doesn't keep anything from over-heating, I was wrong. Though it does have affect on our lives, because without it our computer chips would be different. I found this at:http://www.answers.com/topic/semiconductor.

    Check it out, it's pretty amazing what you can learn with doing a little research.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousOctober 16, 2009 at 8:58 PM

    I don't really understand either but my dad works for version fios/ fiber optics. I will ask him what it is and how it works.

    - Kenneisha.

    ReplyDelete

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