iPod owners and laptop users will appreciate why. The 2007 Nobel prize in physics has recognised the discovery that allowed the miniaturisation of hard discs.
Albert Fert of the University of Paris-South in France and Peter Gr眉nberg of the J眉lich Research Centre in Germany share the gong for independently discovering giant magneoresistance in 1988. When information stored magnetically on a disc is read, it has to be converted into an electric current. While most materials show slightly changed electrical conductivity when magnetised, Fert and Gr眉nberg discovered that this effect is dramatically amplified when a nanometre-thick layer of a non-magnetic material is sandwiched between two layers of magnetic material. That鈥檚 because of the way that electron spins in the outer layers line up.
鈥淭his has had a huge impact on our everyday lives. It鈥檚 the reason you don鈥檛 need to worry about how much software you store on your computer,鈥� says nanotechnology specialist Yongbin Xu at the University of York, UK.
Advertisement
鈥淚t鈥檚 why you needn鈥檛 worry about how much software you store on your computer鈥�
