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NEWS
| OCTOBER 7, 2005
Science
Physicist presents nano discoveries
Ivan Schuller illustrated his
research in Thursday’s ‘Frontier’ science lecture.
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| The Shorthorn: Sara Bookout |
| Ivan Schuller from the Department
of Physics at the University of California, San Diego
discusses research results about magnetic and/or
superconductor materials are confined into small dimensions
Thursday at the Geoscience Building. Dr. Schuller’s
“Nanostructures: Confinement, Proximity and Induced
Effects” speech was a part of the “Frontiers
in Science” presentations hosted by the College
of Science. |
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By C
J Patton
The Shorthorn staff
Ivan Schuller gestured to a picture of the “home computer
of the future,” a room-spanning device from the 1950s and
explained how scientists of the era predicted that every American
family might one day have such a wonder, thanks to scientific advancement.
“With the teletype interface — none of the young guys
know what the hell that means — and the FORTRAN language —
one guy’s nodding his head, ‘I think that’s a
language that was invented by the Ancient Egyptians’ —
this computer will be feasible,” he explained.
Dr. Schuller used the “home computer” to illustrate
why science has no business predicting applications for emerging
technology. The College of Science invited him to present his findings
on nanostructures for a “Frontiers in Science” lecture
Thursday, and he said he didn’t want such mistakes being made
in the growing nanoscience field.
“Basic research pays. Where it pays, it’s impossible
to predict,” Schuller said.
He said his main concern with application-driven science is that
it claims something is useful or is likely to show up in the future,
without having enough information to accurately predict how. He
said he doesn’t want the national disappointment of superconductors
to resurface in nanotechnology.
He said there is a much greater promise in pursuing basic science
and seeing where it goes. The history of science consistently supports
the accidental discovery approach, he said.
“If you look at the history of technology, I would venture
to say that all the major leaps in technology came out of basic
research, unexpectedly,” Schuller said. “Even the Internet
came out of basic research at CERN (Cerner Corp.) by the high energy
guys. I hate to say this, but even high energy guys are useful.”
Schuller illustrated his point with several examples from his own
work. He said it’s common in constructing nanomaterials to
place tiny conducting ‘coins’ of materials on a surface,
to measure magnetism and electrical properties. In experimenting
with these coins, he found something surprising.
“Up until now, I’ve been using these round coins. So,
I ask something stupid — what happens if I use asymmetrical
coins?” he said. “So, I have a lattice of these triangle
coins, and now I’m going to do something really stupid. I’m
going to put AC current in, and measure the DC voltage.”
According to all his predictions, Schuller should not have gotten
any result — one current doesn’t translate to another,
he said. However, against all his expectations, he got a result.
“What you’re seeing is a DC voltage coming out of an
AC current. Nothing — not any material known to man —
does this,” he said.
Mechanical engineering junior David Esquivel said he wasn’t
able to follow everything presented in the lecture, but said he
was excited about some of Schuller’s findings. He said he
was surprised “that he was able to get DC out of AC,”
which is relatively unknown.
Esquivel said he would be willing to attend future “Frontiers”
lectures but hopes they will be more understandable to the common
student.
CORRECTION
This story should have stated that the basic
research deriving the Internet was conducted by CERN, the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (also known as Conseil Européen
pour la Recherche Nucléaire).
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