Arati Halbe

Silicon-based electronic circuits are continuously getting smaller. The Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC currently makes chips with the smallest feature of the circuit measuring just 7 nanometers, with millions of such components packed on a single chip. The process of manufacturing such ultra-dense circuits is complex. Despite world-class control, there are tiny fluctuations in the nanoscale dimensions. Thus, each transistor is slightly different from another across chips and even on the same chip.

One of the annoying side effects of being absorbed in a gripping novel is that the tea in the cup on the table becomes cold. Unfortunately, the tea will not heat itself by absorbing the heat around it, just as pieces of a broken egg shell will not put themselves together. Such things are irreversible, and define a fixed direction of time — from the past towards the future. This apparent progression of time is called the ‘arrow of time’. In a recent study, Professor Mahendra Verma of the Indian

As electronic devices shrink, we may be reaching the limit of how small they can be made. Samsung recently claimed to have made electronic circuits with transistors of length 7 nanometers (1 nanometer is a billionth of a meter). Would we able to go any smaller? Graphene---carbon in the form of a single sheet of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice---can make this possible, say scientists. In a recent study, a team from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), in collaboration with Bh

After graphene, carbon nanocones are now an exciting form of carbon for material scientists. As the name suggests, they are conical structures made up of carbon, where graphene sheets are folded like a party cap with a height and diameter of a few nanometers (1 nanometer = 1/1,000,000,000th of a metre). With unique properties due to their conical shape, they have a wide range of applications, including being used as a tip of the probe of a high precision microscope used to record activity at an

Yesterday, the Indian Meteorological Department predicted this year’s monsoon to be normal. But wait, we are still in the early summer months, right? How did they do that well ahead in time for our farmers to sow their seeds and plan their irrigation resources and for civic authorities to plan the distribution of water for domestic and industrial uses? With much of our country relying on monsoon, perfecting the art of predicting it right is necessary. Scientists have now perfected the art, thank