I learned a bunch of #scientific#glass stuff attending the ASGS Symposium at Salem Community College last week.
I learned a bunch about Quartz glass! AKA Fused Silica- its glass without any fluxes- just super pure silica! Its needed for #Semiconductor production and one of the US symposium sponsors is using Chips act funds to be there (they are trying to triple their glassblowers in 10 years).
Quartz is so weird to work with- it sublimes (goes from solid to gas) and leaves behind vaporous quartz as white haze around the area worked. In a semiconductor environment you would use hydrogen fed torches and gloves with Hydrofluoric acid washes in between operations! The #hydrogen is like a hot laserbeam flame. #Quartz wont ever boil, stops moving quickly and is almost impervious to thermal stress
Glass knowledge wasn't the only thing I picked up though- my body also picked up some #COVID I just discovered #Monsterdon .Time to stay home :)
Never mind #crypto or "AI": Let's talk about the water needs of the #semiconductor industry.
"Without secure access to large volumes of #water there are no #semiconductors, and without semiconductors there are no electronics. The #climate emergency is a major driver of water stress both now and in the future. Can the tech sector cope?"
During the roundtable, the Secy emphasized the impact that investments like the #CHIPS & #Science Act have had on revitalizing #semiconductor#manufacturing in the #UnitedStates & the opportunity for catalyzing private #investment in #CostaRica & the #Western Hemisphere. Secy Raimondo, Mins Tovar & Bogantes also heard from participants about opportunities across the semiconductor #ValueChain & the role of partners, like Costa Rica, in strengthening global semiconductor #SupplyChain resilience.
There's a great throwaway line in 1992's Sneakers: Dan Aykroyd, playing a conspiracy-addled hacker/con-man, feverishly tells Sydney Poitier (ex-CIA spook) about a 1958 meeting between Eisenhower and aliens where he said, "look, give us your technology, and we'll give you all the cow lips you want."
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Crucially, the report lays out the role that the weakening of #antitrust, the dismantling of tariffs and the strengthening of IP played in the history of the current moment. The failure to enforce antitrust law allowed for monopolization at every stage of the #semiconductor industry's supply-chain.