October 10, 2007

Nobel Prize for hard drive scientists

It is said that without the work of France’s Albert Fert and Germany’s Peter Gruenberg computing as we know it today would not exist. They discovered “Giant Magnetoresistance” which is basically doing fantastic things at a microscopic level.

Without this technology we would not have seen the wide range of computing devices that use data storage. But what is it? They discovered that really thin layers of alternate metals would detect very small changes in magnetism, but when electricity is introduced these tiny changes are then transformed into giant changes. This makes a better and denser data storage.

The two scientists discovered this while working independently to each other, and so shared the $1.5 million prize.

Source [NY Times]

Filed Under Technology