In just five years a personal life recorder that can store a lifetime of events on an Ipod sized device could be a fact of the near future according to the Physicist Stuart Parkin.
Parkin spoke on "spintronics" as part of the Rustgi lecture. The Rustgi lectures are held annually in honor of the late Moti Lal Rustgi, professor of physics at UB from 1966-92.
Spintronics, the ability to control and read the spin of electrons would allow 400 times more data to be stored and utilized in the same space as today's hard drives. Parkin compared it to a racetrack, and noted that the need was to re-engineer the racetrack and that was the pioneering principle behind spintronics.
This technology uses sputtered layers-it also uses the same properties seen in molecular beam epitaxy systems but is more simplistic than the MBE.
Many of the terms in his lecture were not explained in terms that a layperson would understand. However, in an interview with Science Watch magazine Parkin helped break down the definition of MBE as: Molecular Beams coming from thermally evaporated elemental sources.
The dictionary defines epitaxy as an oriented overgrowth of crystalline material upon the surface of another crystal of different chemical composition but similar structure.
According to Parkin a sputtering system's simplicity is far more important for manufacturing purposes partly because MBE's are expensive and cumbersome.
This sputtering system is the key factor in bringing this seemingly sci-fi technology a matter of fact in as Parkin predicts as little as 5 years.
During the lecture Parkin stressed that the ability to records ones entire life on a personal life recorder could be quite useful in eliminating discrepancies in past conversations. Although he did not elaborate further, ears immediately popped up in the audience.
Robyn Goacher, Chemistry graduate student commented that she hoped it "had an off button".
It is no doubt this technology could spin out of control and the understandable fear of that follows suit with other intrusive technologies like spy devices.
Parkin joked with the audience about the humanity of this technology, he seemed to share the same sentiment of an "off button".
There are some things people do not want to replay in their minds. This kind of technology could have a real impact socially. Simply put with the press of a button one could discover that little white lie told by their best friend six years ago.
Albert Einstein summed this up best "It is appallingly obvious that our technology exceeds our humanity".
Another student majoring in Electrical Engineering-Jung Woo Jong felt that this lecture was integral to his research and was leading UB into new frontiers. He stressed that the use of lower temperatures and room temperature to produce these affects is a major leap and would mean less power consumption when storing and transferring data.
UB is attempting to be a leader in research in the next 20 years, and it seems in the heart of these students this lecture was a step in that direction.
