• Question: Does science have anything to do with phones and gadgets that we use today?

    Asked by jennah23 to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: James Boone

      James Boone answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      There was a lot of science done to create the technology powering your mobile phone, yes. A lot of solid state physicists work was done on creating new processors that are faster and faster to keep up with all the latest things you want to do.
      A lot of science also went into creating touch screens, batteries and the antennae which provide you with a phone signal.

    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      Every single gadget we have was developed by science.

      For example, the laser is a quantum physics invention. We use them to watch blu rays and dvds, and they’re very useful for things like manufacturing.

      There’s also some exciting work on screens for tvs. Science helps us to make the pixels smaller and smaller which means you can have higher resolution screens for blu ray and 3D films. In a few years we might start seeing screens that are flexible, like paper.

      Miniaturisation (making everything smaller) means that my current smart phone has more storage space and memory than the computer I had ten years ago. And I can do more things with it!

    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      A resounding yes. Science and technology are quite intrinsically lined and it is usually scientific discoveries that lead to advances in technology. Did you know that the principles behind computers were first conceived by mathematicians in the 19th century?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

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