Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-09-quantum-mechanics-laptop.html#jCp
Top scientists from UC Berkeley and MIT found the expertise they lacked at FIU. They invited Sakhrat Khizroev, a professor with appointments in both medicine and engineering, to help them conduct research as part of their NSF-funded Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science.
The group is looking to cut the cord, literally, by finding ways to efficiently power computers of the future. Energy consumption from laptops, huge data centers and every other Internet-connected electronic device is rising exponentially and could impact available resources down the road. To reverse this energy-guzzling trend, the Berkeley-based center is investigating the use of revolutionary nanotechnology—the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular and supramolecular scale—to create endlessly charged atomic batteries that could supplant our reliance on the plug.
"I am honored," says Khizroev of his inclusion on the elite team. His peers tapped him because they needed an expert in something called "the magnetic spin of electrons and spintronic devices," as he explains it.
Discovered in the 1980s, spintronics harnesses the magnetism and constant gyroscopic spin of electrons to process data. With a naturally negative charge, electrons are subatomic particles that orbit around an atom's nucleus like the rings around Saturn, and their magnetic energy could provide theoretically limitless power.