Access and Feeds

Blog Archives

Global Chip Race: Which Country Holds the Cards?

By Dick Weisinger

China announces a plan to become self sufficient in the production of semiconductors after the US tries to squeeze it by blocking the sales of advanced chip and semiconductor technology to China through sanctions. China is investing billions of dollars…

Rare Earth Elements: Shortages Likely in the Coming Decade

By Dick Weisinger

17 rare earth elements are used in the production of high-tech devices, including consumer electronics like cell phones, autonomous vehicles, and defense equipment like radar systems and guided missiles. The production of rare earth elements is currently dominated by the…

Nickel/Zinc Batteries: Safer Alternative to Lead-Acid and Lithium-Ion

By Dick Weisinger

The rechargeable Nickel/Zinc battery was patented by Thomas Edison in 1901 but ran into a problem with charging and was never able to bring the battery to market. In 1993, Morris Eisenberg at Stanford created an electrolyte that increased NiZn…

Artificial Intelligence: Speeding the Discovery of New Materials

By Dick Weisinger

Artificial Intelligence is being applied to a variety of fields, sometimes with amazing results. For example, scientists have begun to use AI in the area of materials science in order to help discover new materials. Researchers at Sandia estimate that…

Shannon Limit: Boosting Capacity of Existing Cable is Limited

By Dick Weisinger

Our increasing consumption of data for Netflix, Zoom meetings, and hundreds of other network services is putting a strain on the cables through which all that data flows. There is a maximum upper-limit capacity for a data channel. It’s called…