In the short term, the war is causing energy prices to soar and prompting fears of famine in some countries. In the long term, it could remake the modern global supply chain.
Intel Inside no longer means what it once did.
Slejven Djurakovic
Shutdowns at microchip factories, panic-buying by electronics manufacturers, and legions of workers and home-schoolers needing new devices, have put a global squeeze on the electronics market.
Modern supply chains have become very efficient, but that means disruptions of any kind can lead to delays and shortages.
The U.S. is still a leader in designing and selling computer chips, but the vast majority of the world’s chips are fabricated in Taiwan and South Korea.
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The high cost and long lead times for building computer chip factories makes it difficult for the U.S. to reverse the steady decline of its domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity.
Production of Tesla Model 3s was forced to be suspended.
EPA
These tiny nanoparticles might provide a new way to see what’s happening in the brain and even deliver treatments to specific cells – if researchers figure out how to use them safely and effectively.
The semiconductor industry sits at the centre of the modern world.
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It turns out to be fairly complicated to figure out how electricity will flow through materials – a crucial question for designing new electronics and semiconductor materials.
What if it were a lot easier to install solar power?
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Silicon is cheap and a good semiconductor, but it’s bulky and rigid. Using organic polymers as semiconductors could yield solar panels with the physical characteristics of plastics.
Silicon Valley brought together natural surroundings, suburban homes and futuristic high-tech work. But industrial pollution betrayed the California dream.