Prashant Kumta, Materials Science
The short version of the story is that we made a silicon-based material called MCM-41. It's classified with a group of mesoporous molecular sieves becauseit's composed of arrays of ordered pores which are really tiny (our were about 12 Angstroms). The way we figure it, if you were able to fill these pores with a magnetic material (i.e. iron), you would ba able to magnetize the material in a manner allowing for magnetic data storage. Seeing as the pores are so small, you would end up with an extremely high-density medium for storage . . . and eventually, incredibly high-capacity computer hardware. We are still struggling with effective pore-filling, but progress is being made.
In other news, I hope to be leaving on September 15 to hike the Appalachian Trail (well, half). After that, who knows what I'll be doing. I'll be starting college for real next September at . . . OK, fine, I have no idea where, but hopefully someplace nice. Remember, "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."
