Meta Monday

  INTRODUCTION   Have you ever marveled over how far we have come from using flintstones? The human race's achievements in all technological fields over the last century are far beyond expectations. The majority of this success is owed to semiconductors. Semiconductors, used in ICs, microprocessors, in every electronic device have led to feats in communications, computing, healthcare, military systems, automobiles, space missions, artificial intelligence, and every other essential industry.     Are these materials easy to obtain? How are they actually produced? Let’s have a look.   THE PROCESS Making semiconductor devices involve several complicated steps.   1.       MINING The raw material for most silicon, the most commonly used semiconductor, production is the mineral quartzite. Raw quartzite is mostly silicon dioxide (SiO2), and the refining process begins with a reduction reaction to getting rid of the o...

  Deep below Earth’s surface 2,900 kilometers deep, to be precise is a mass of mostly molten iron forming the planet’s outer core. Could it rust as well? Iron on Earth’s surface—whether in simple nails or mighty girders—reacts gradually when exposed to moist air or oxygenated water through a chemical reaction known as oxidation. The reddish-brown product of this reaction is rust. A new study claims that the earth's core is rusting. rusting happens when the iron is exposed to moist air and oxygenated water leading to a chemical reaction leaving a reddish residue behind and making the iron weak. Since the core is situated 2900kms below the earth's surface it was assumed that the high pressure environment and lack of water-bearing minerals have protected the iron in the core from rusting. But recent experiments suggested that rust can form at high pressures and could possibly be formed at locations where water from the earth's crust has sunk to the core-mantle boundry. In the ...