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SCIENTISTS AT TRINITY College Dublin (TCD) have made a breakthrough that could increase computer disk capacity by 1,000-fold.
The groundbreaking research at TCD’s CRANN Institute could lead to lengthy and complex calculations, such as database searches, being performed at incredibly high speeds.
A team lead by Professor Stefano Sanvito has discovered a new way to make molecular magnets more rigid, allowing them to operate at room temperature – something researchers have been trying to do for over 30 years.
Molecular magnets are tiny molecules, often comprising only a handful of atoms, which display the same properties of conventional magnets.
If molecular magnets were to be used in hard-disk drives, there is the potential to increase the disk’s capacity up to a thousand times, so that a standard 3.5’ hard-disk would store more than 1,000,000 gigabytes of data. This is because molecular magnets can be packed together at ultra-high density.
At present, a hypothetical hard-disk made of magnetic molecules will lose all data unless cooled down to about -200 Celsius.
‘Very exciting’
Sanvito described the breakthrough as “very exciting”. It has been detailed in a paper published in the Nature Communications journal.
“[It] is of huge interest to the scientific community, who have demonstrated very slow progress to date with the development of molecular magnets that can operate at room temperature. When a magnet is small its magnetic properties degrade rapidly with temperature.
“In this paper, we have shown that a drastic improvement in the high-temperature properties of magnetic magnets can be achieved by engineering the molecules to be as rigid as possible,” Sanvito said.
He added that the discovery offers real potential for very powerful quantum computers, which “may one day revolutionise computation as we know it”.
My great great granny was in service in the 1890′s in Glasgow until her marriage in 1898 – she’d moved there from Castlecomer sometime after 1891 and didn’t return to Ireland until 1907. I’d really love to know more about her working life before she married.
No dogs, no blacks & no Irish, the vast majority of people who left Ireland for foreign shores had to fight tooth and nail to survive. It’s very ignorant and typical to hear the indoctrinated mouth pieces comparing our history over centuries being compared to the mass forced uncontrolled souls being herded into DP centres with “sure weren’t the Irish welcomed all over the world nonsense
@Agenda21:
Agree 100%.
Whilst DP is far from perfect, especially during this time of unprecedented global pandemic, state sponsored visitor welfare – including food, accommodation, security, clothing, education, medical – was a luxury never offered or even available to any of our emigrants making a new life abroad in distant times past.
And for all that welfare, nothing expected in return, which in anybody’s language is a great blooming deal, especially if after initial assessment, processing the opportunity for permanent stay being the very worthwhile prize.
For those emigrants from era when Ireland was shaking off shackles of colonization, survival was name of the game, so whatever work was available was manna from heaven.
@Agenda21: “Mass forced uncontrolled souls” what kind of rhetorical drivel is that? We treat asylum seekers like dirt. The brits treated us like dirt. It’s not that complicated hun.
@Black and Brown Irish people exist.: Shut up and get back in your box ye slapper
It was not only in Britain it also here too Service girls aged13 were suffering too . Ask anyone who remembers what their grandmothers said . It was an awful time for women men and children who were poor .
Can we suppose it was any better in Ireland at the time being servants to the priests and nuns,
@Michael Maher: Nice try at deflection but no. The ‘big house’ was a thing of the Anglo Protestant ascendency, until the birth of Yeats’s ‘terrible beauty’ in the early 20th century.
@Bramley Hawthorne: I note that whatever the subject is initially, eventually someone will always refer to the abuse carried out by religious orders in Ireland is this our very own version of Goodwin’s law? If it is what shall we call it?
@Pat Coyne: I never mentioned about the religious perverts but was referring to the slaves they had in their kicthens.
House mistress to Irish servant girl:
“Have you dusted this?” as she ran her finger on the mantelpiece”
Reply:”Yes ma’am”
House mistress:” I can write my name on here”
Reply:”Ma’am it’s a great to be able to write”
Smart cailín!
That carry on was happening all over the world and still is to some extent and worse ,we have some of our own smuggling people around the world and causing the death of many lately .We have our drug lord’s some the most notorious in the world ,of course this does not justify what went on in the past
@FlopFlipU: how many & at who are ye pointing fingers at bad shoe
@flamrock: tell us more please!
@brian oconnell: my post was deleted…that’s very unfortunate Christian of you.
@flamrock: my post was deleted, that’s very un Christian of u.
@brian oconnell: I was a at that time an apprentice refrigeration engineer and the person in question who was over the plant hated Irish people, I’m not sure why, he broke my b ss every day for no reason. After that he seen the light.
@flamrock: I think my point is…you don’t have to go all the way back to the 1800 to find discrimination.
We should be proud of how far we have come as a nation (…..and an economy). We could try to attribute it to certain political decisions, but let’s just say that once we got our freedom from Britain we’ve worked hard, using our intelligence and creativity to get where we are.
@HonDeDeise: yes we did.in some cases the world followed our example. Despite our politicans best efforts we have indeed come a long way.
My granny was a domestic servant at Borris House in Carlow, how I wish I’d asked her more about it.
In America these women as mothers were very ambitious for their children’s education. The next generation of these immigrants as a result enjoyed a better life.
Very interesting endeavor Catherine, best of luck with it.
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. People in Ireland in 2095 will say the same about us who are living in the years 1990-2020 onwards. Historical evaluation is often relative to the worldview of the individual historian. Historians generally tend to look on past eras as inferior to contemporary eras. [There are a few exceptionalist medievalists who consider the general spirit of the Renaissance in continental Europe to have been superior to the general death-seeking spirit of the twentieth century - the debate continues.] There are also relativities of social setting. Some historical researchers may assert that being a Catholic servant in Big House Ireland was ‘better’ than being an English servant girl in a middle class Victorian household in Clapham. etc. etc.
@Garreth Byrne: don’t forget.history is not written my the enslaved or the poor.in the case of conflict it is always written by the Victor.
It all happened in this country as well not even a hundred years ago when the Irish farmers got the land
Hon Ellen ya boy ya, I cheered every one of those ‘ Belts ‘ …
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