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Science Friday > Archives > 2002 > November > November 1, 2002:
Hour Two: Tiny Circuits / Tim Berners-Lee

Three little letters -- w-w-w -- have come to change how we communicate, get our information, and do our shopping. In this hour of Science Friday, Ira talks to the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, about the history and future of the web -- including web standards, the exchange of data in the Semantic Web, and the tools and technologies responsible for web communication.

Plus, we'll find out about a means of computation based on the movement of molecules. Through a painstaking process of lining up carbon monoxide molecules on a copper surface, IBM scientists have managed to build circuits capable of basic computer operations when one molecule is knocked into others, setting off a domino-like effect. Though impractical, the technique is said to point in new directions for ultra-small computing.

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Guests:
Tim Berners-Lee
3Com Founders Chair and Principal Research Scientist
Laboratory For Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Director, World Wide Web Consortium
Author, "Weaving the Web" (Harper San Francisco, 1999)
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Don Eigler
IBM Fellow
IBM's Almaden Research Center
San Jose, California

Books/Articles Discussed:

"Weaving the Web," by Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti. Harper San Francisco, 1999.

"Molecule Cascades," A. J. Heinrich, C. P. Lutz, J. A. Gupta, and D. M. Eigler. Published online October 24 2002; 10.1126/science.1076768 (Science Express Research Articles )

(find more SciFri books here)

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Related Links:
NY Times: Scientists Shrink Computing to Molecular Level
ZDNet |UK| - IBM builds circuit with carbon monoxide modules
IBM Research || IBM scientists build world's smallest operating computing circuits

Tim Berners-Lee
W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium
Marconi Foundation Award
Scientific American: The Semantic Web
TIME 100: Scientists & Thinkers - Tim Berners-Lee

This segment produced by Charles Bergquist

 


 

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