germanium
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Germanium is addictive humility
Germanium, developed by Edamame, and compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch (iOS 7.0 or later), is entertainment stripped down to the core. In the app store, the description promises a 100 second challenge that, "will utterly destroy every bit of gamer pride in you." It almost mocks you stating that it was only cleared twice during pre-release testing, then points out the simple tilt controls and basic graphics, even describing itself as "exceedingly simple." Listed in the iTunes store for $1.29, it's well worth trying out this highly addictive, if frustrating game. In and of itself, this is a very simple game. Even the title screen, which contains the title, "Start game," and "Touch to start" is stripped bare. The goal of Germanium is simply to guide a white ball past colorful blocks, and survive for 100 seconds. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Each new color of block presents a new and different challenge as time goes on. The tilt control is very fluid and reactive, making it easy to keep control of the ball. For about the first fifteen seconds, I figured I would easily conquer this challenge, then, over the course of the next thirty, everything went downhill. Both sides allow the ball to go off-screen to the left and appear on the right and vice versa, helping to avoid the more colorful, daunting blocks as they increase in number, movement and size. It was extremely fast-paced, frustrating, addictive, and fun all wrapped into about 40-60 seconds at a time. The only negative I experienced was at about 50 seconds in, my iPhone screen would automatically dim. This is easily fixable by either touching your finger to the screen, or disabling Auto-Lock in the general settings. For only $1.29, the highly addictive Germanium is well worth the price. A short, concise distraction that won't run over 100 seconds is perfect for a handheld device as a way to kill time. Of course, any game that willingly calls out prospective players is definitely begging to be beaten.
NC State nanoflowers can boost battery and solar cell capacity, make great prom accessories
We see a lot of sleek-looking technology pass through our doors, but it's rare that the inventions could be called beautiful by those who aren't immersed in the gadget world. We'd venture that North Carolina State University might have crossed the divide by creating an energy storage technology that's both practical and genuinely pretty. Its technology vaporizes germanium sulfide and cools it into 20-30 nanometer layers that, as they're combined, turn into nanoflowers: elegant structures that might look like the carnation on a prom dress or tuxedo, but are really energy storage cells with much more capacity than traditional cells occupying the same area. The floral patterns could lead to longer-lived supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries, and the germanium sulfide is both cheap and clean enough that it could lead to very efficient solar cells that are more environmentally responsible. As always, there's no definite timetable for when (and if) NC State's technology might be commercialized -- so call someone's bluff if they promise you a nanoflower bouquet.
Phase change memory breakthrough could lead to gigahertz-plus data transfers, make SSDs seem pokey
Often considered the eventual successor to flash, phase change memory has had a tough time getting to the point where it would truly take over; when it takes longer to write data than conventional RAM, there's clearly a roadblock. The University of Cambridge has the potential cure through a constant-power trick that primes the needed hybrid of germanium, antimony and tellurium so that it crystalizes much faster, committing data to memory at an equally speedy rate. Sending a steady, weak electric field through the substance lets a write operation go through in just 500 picoseconds; that's 10 times faster than an earlier development without the antimony or continuous power. Researchers think it could lead to permanent storage that runs at refresh rates of a gigahertz or more. In other words, the kinds of responsiveness that would make solid-state drives break out in a sweat. Any practical use is still some distance off, although avid phase change memory producers like Micron are no doubt champing at the bit for any upgrade they can get.
Germanium lasers offer ray of hope for optical computing
Bandwidth scarcity, is there any more pressing global issue that we're faced with today? We think not. Given the exponential growth in both computing power and software's exploitation and expectation of greater resources, it's no surprise that at some point we'll have to look beyond simple electrical currents as the transporters of our data. One bold step taken in that direction has been the demonstration of an operational germanium-on-silicon laser by researchers at MIT. By tweaking the electron count in germanium atoms with the help of some added phosphorous, they've been able to coax them into a photon-emitting state of being -- something nobody thought possible with indirect bandgap semiconductors. Perhaps the best part of this is that germanium can be integrated relatively easily into current manufacturing processes, meaning that light-based internal communication within our computers is now at least a tiny bit closer to becoming a reality.
UCLA nanowire discovery could lead to faster, stronger, smaller electronics
Advancements in silicon-germanium have been going on for years now, but a team at UCLA is convinced that their discovery really is "the next big thing." For scores now, microchip makers have struggled with miniaturizing transistors as the public at large demands that things get smaller and smaller. Thanks to researchers at the aforesaid university, it's looking like silicon-germanium nanowires could be the key to making the process a whole lot easier. According to study co-author Suneel Kodambaka, the new nanowires could "help speed the development of smaller, faster and more powerful electronics," also noting that they're so small that they can be "placed in virtually anything." Which is great, because the Adamo XPS is just entirely too pudgy.
