We have grown used to science being done using computers.
Especially computer science.
The idea that a computer science breakthrough might take place on a blackboard boggles the mind.
Well, Dr. Emily Carter (right) has made one. Dr. Carter is a professor of engineering and mathematics at Princeton. She walks where Einstein walked. She works as Einstein worked. (Picture from Princeton.)
And while Dr. Carter’s equation isn’t E=MC2, it’s still pretty nifty. And it will impact computing.
The equation is an elegant solution to a problem first posed by Enrico Fermi and Llewellyn Thomas more than 80 years ago. It’s a model for measuring how electrons will act in metals. With a few tweaks it works with semiconductors too.
Older equations could model only a few hundred atoms. This one can model the behavior of millions of atoms at a time. It means we can predict what happens in real metals, and real semiconductors, with accuracy. Code it for use in computing and watch what happens.
It speeds the computer modeling of metals by factors unheard-of by Moore’s Law. It will mean better materials for creating energy and, in time, better computers as well.
Yet it was done on a blackboard. Well, a whiteboard. If that doesn’t boggle your mind, your mind is unboggleable.
