A type of algae found in oceans, lakes and wet soil could be used to create a new, faster generation of computer chips, U.S. researchers suggest in a study released Monday.
Marine diatoms, a unicellular algae, build their hard, patterned cell walls with microscopic lines of silica â?? a compound related to silicon, which is a key material for constructing computer chips and semiconductors.
“If we can genetically control that process, we would have a whole new way of performing the nanofabrication used to make computer chips,” lead researcher Michael Sussman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemistry professor, said in a release.