As technology continually allows for smaller, stronger computer chips in everything from the PC to the iPod, researchers like IBM chemist Robert Miller pave the way.
Miller, winner of the 2010 ACS Award for Chemistry of Materials, developed materials that helped pack more transistors onto each computer chip, those postage stamp-size slivers of silicon that make up the brains of computers and other electronic devices.
In doing so, computer chips became smaller, faster, and more powerful – setting the stage for the rapid miniaturization underpinning the consumer electronics revolution.
A new video episode of How the Science Behind ACS Awards Impacts Your Life chronicling the shrinking computer chip is available at the Prized Science website, YouTube, iTunes and on DVD.
Some highlights featured on the video include coverage of “green gasoline”, an environmentally-friendly process to create motor fuel, a look at nanoparticles, and the possibility that life on Earth originated on Mars.
