the credible story. if it's. a passion a drama competition rivalry marketing numbers atmosphere power fight that's how intuition love hate money. fans friends fans fans and friends over. on you tube. from. our planet contains many treasures we extract metals and minerals from the ground to use for building roads machinery and computer chips all our technological progress depends on these resources but supplies of raw materials are not infinite in many cases mining them poisons people and the environment and yet the

electronics industry critically relies on them how can we continue to develop technology without draining our world's resources. welcome to you tomorrow today the science show on you know. this is according more chemist engineer and entrepreneur back in the 1960 s. he formulated what is becoming known as moore's law roughly speaking it's does the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every 2 years that means computers steadily become more powerful more predicted that the trend would continue up to now it has computer chips are getting even smaller as a team of scientists in germany has now found a way of downsizing microchips still further. it's a simple fact. of modern life electronic gadgets get smaller and smaller and

they're able to do more and more that microprocessors a constantly becoming by the tiny powerful but getting computer chips to downsize is not a matter of magic it needs the brains of people like these pay to curt's. and sich a union together as part of an international network they've taken a huge step to even smaller chips. but how a computer chips made in the 1st place in principle it takes something like a slight project into the chip circuitry is stenciled on to the side but instead of projecting the pic challenge to a screen you focus it onto a silicon wafer with a light sensitive cutting place. the image can then be developed much like a photograph and at the end you have your computer chips. with technology we can mail integrate over 16000000000 transistors onto

a microchip that's smaller than a finger chip. but what kind of components do we need for a projector we need a light source and an optical system fi consisting of lenses and mirrors. let's start with a light source light is an electromagnetic wave and waves have a wavelength red light has alone wavelengths blue light a short wavelength and ultraviolet light a very short wavelength but what does that have to do with chip manufacture roses mohan copper totted put simply a long wavelength means large structural size a short wave length means small structural size. and you are trying to extreme ultraviolet light or you re has a wavelength of 13 member half nominators. that's less than a 10th of previously large wavelengths. you can create images of

structures in much sharper resolution. it takes a laser to generate a u.v. light but how does that work to begin with you have to build the world's most powerful industrial pulsed laser it's a technological masterpiece it produces a high intensity light pain but not even a likes yet. to get that you need to trick a laser beam is aimed at a droplet of liquid tin the high energy light heats that into 220000 degrees celcius transforming it into a plasma which radiates the desired. the pulse laser does that $50000.00 times a 2nd. so that takes care of the day we have a light source 'd what's missing is the optical system being. glass lens is

a no good for the task they only transmit certain wavelengths and even life's not one of them. the solution is to use curved mirrors instead of lenses the light only has to reflect on the surface it doesn't have to pass through. the mirror as a ground from glass blocks like this and then polished surfaces are incredibly smooth. if this marrow was scaled up to be the size of germany its biggest irregularity would be barely a 10th of a millimeter deep. but it's not just about grinding and polishing a mirror requires a coating. and this equipment gives the merest glass surface extremely thin coatings of silicon and molybdenum. they're only a few atoms thick but the research is a. as many as

a 100 layers why is it. if the mirrors coating is too thick then it will absorb too much of the light. this is but it's still a huge struggle to get good reflection using layers. should. theoretically the maximum reflectivity 75 percent as far as i know. in. reflectivity is a measure of performance and 70 percent is a great value. the magic lies in constructive interference which works like this and. part of it is reflected from the rest penetrates the top layer to reach the next. reflected the rest penetrates to the next layer and so on if the

layers all have the correct thickness the reflected light is. now the light reflected from the reaches the silicon and the next generation computer chip take shape. so. for 20 years it's a great feeling to hold a gadget in your hand with an e.u. reach chip inside and to know that we helped develop the technology that made this kind of chip possible. the trio of scientists was awarded the christie just german future prize for their innovation their technology is already in use the latest smartphones carry chips fashioned with extreme ultraviolet light is just one more confirmation of moore's law says the number of transistors that fit on the chip doubles every 2 years. in the 20 teens people started saying that the limits of more. law would be reached. and it wouldn't be

possible to go any further. and with the technology we now have the technology with which we can continue pushing moore's law over the next 10 years. i don't. think telling. one valuable commodity used in modern electronics is gold it's a highly efficient conductor that doesn't rust and hardly reacts that all other elements. in estimated 200000 tons of gold have been mined to date. this search for gold has led to bloody conflicts in many regions and the processes involved in extracting it pollute water and soil and endangered people's health reason enough to come up with alternative ways of

striking gold. there's hidden treasure in this trash. germany alone generates a 1000000 tonnes of electronic waste every year and the scrap is a gold mine literally just look at this computer circuit board for example. gold conducts electricity better than copper take this gold plated edge connector the gold is used to ensure the best possible connection for high quality fast data transfer. these connectors have to be technically sound meaning the gold plating prevents oxidize sation and guarantees the best possible connectivity throughout our devices lifetime so i thought i know best move here connectivity be it laptop or smartphone most electronically with the function without gold. the electronic waste from 5 computers contains

a total of one gram of gold that's actually a lot it's the same as the amount contained in 2 tonnes of. but mining it would generate huge amounts of c o 2 anough to drive a car 3 times around the globe. the greater the ecological footprint of a material or product becomes the more important it is to recycle but does recycling make economic sense and does are. we protect the environment our group uses a company that recycles medals including goals. the 1st stage involves shredding the waste and separating plastics from metals that leaves a mixture of metals which are melted down together in a furnace at $1300.00 degrees celcius the heavier metals gold silver and copper sing together to the bottom of the melting vessel and can be poured off separately from the lighter metals about. the

heavy metals end up in places like these they're mostly copper but they do contain quite a bit of gold. going on for stents wife 2 of these plates way just under $800.00 kilos as one troy ounce of gold is distributed throughout those plates $31.00 grounds aims to extract it with a minimum of loss so exciting. each strachan process uses a lot of chemicals the plates are dipped in a sequence of acid baths each of which dissolves a different metal from the mixture 1st the copper then silver last of all the gold . a rubies won't let us film the last stage of the process that's a commercial secret. recovers 18 tons of gold a year from electronic waste it's evidently

a lucrative business but its impact on the environment does less beneficial the assets have to be disposed of in an elaborate process and the smelting furnace churns out large amounts of c o 2. but recycling gold might soon become more environmentally friendly industrial biotech company brain is working on a completely new method it's using bacteria to recover the gold from the electronic scrap even though by. tyria normally avoid the precious metal like the plague. it emits highly think even though the metal is a not very reactive and that anti microbial so it's a very special property of an organism can survive in high concentrations of the metal quite apart from being able to get a metal into solution esther got bore and her team experimented with thousands of bacterial strains till they found a suitable candidate they've dubbed it pseudomonas metallic solvent meaning metal solving pseudomonas bacterium. the researchers at brain demonstrate how the gold is

extract in a plant they've developed and dubbed the bio extract or. the biological miracle takes place in this fact. first polarized electronic waste this black sludge is mixed with a lot of water then the mixture is an ocular aged with the bacteria which are suspended in a yellow liquid. thanks to nutrients in the water the bacteria thrive and begin colonizing the electronic waste particles and leeching the precious metal into solution. the gold rich water is then simply pumped off. but how do you get the gold out of the water. that's the job of the

2nd type of bacteria in these pellets they soak up the gold like a sponge. the pellets are then burned off that leaves a residue of small but very pure gold nuggets. there but this is not the process takes place and a very gentle kind we work at room temperature the bacteria become active at $26.00 degrees celsius the biological process releases half the amount of c o 2 compared with the melting process the bacterial approach is safer and more eco friendly than the smelting and chemical processes the next stage is to scale the brain's brainy solution it may look very promising but it's true soon just say whether the bio extraction methods will win out.

to mine gold or other precious metals you usually have to plaster way through masses of rock. but how did these raw materials get there in the 1st place many chain from hot fluids flowing through cracks in the earth's crust these deposits got pushed up with other layers of rock to form impressive structures if you or them genuinely wanted to know more . the rocks grow. up he cracks like these consist of hard compact stone often in bizarre formations they're considered immovable and immutable like the old saying solid as a rock. but snow and ice wind and rain gradually where a way the rocky peak of a mountain. it gets ground to pebbles then sand and finally to silt the process of erosion the cells is carried away by water and often ends up in the ocean as

settlement on the seabed. over millions of years the mass becomes dense and cements into sedimentary rock. where 2 or more of tectonic plates are pushed together the sedimentary rock on the edges of the plates pushed upwards to form a mountain chain. but the rock doesn't grow again maps it nearly all to shake. back at the peak again erosion begins itself to work the geological cycle starts over. rocks to form and grow when for example calcium carbonate precipitates out of the water from a spring like this one in southern germany. this forms limestone deposits which together with moss and blue alkie create a firm crossed that is impermeable to water. thus the rock does grow a few millimeters a year thanks to the calcium carbonate. in. the

same process can be seen in caves. where the water borne deposits form stomach types which grow downwards from the roof. and stomach mites which grow up towards. the rock crystal or quartz found in the alps can also grow in a similar way as does limescale in the shower. and even the tartar on our teeth. it's formed by the mineralization of dead bacteria and dental plaque. the oldest known rocks on our planet are located in canada the cast a nice complex is more than 4000000000 years old a look back into our planet's prehistory the outcrop was formed what it was all. for 900 degrees celsius. the earth was pretty wild back then a multitude planet bombarded by meteorites the salt that we now use to season our

food was also formed back then. 4 and a half 1000000000 years ago our planet was a red hot mass as it cooled volcanoes hold matter from its in a most court to the surface liquid rock richen sodium gushed from fishes in the earth's crust and the gas clouds from the volcanic crater is contained to not only water vapor but chlorine. it remained in the atmosphere until the air cooled enough for the 1st rains. the chlorine was washed down with the rain into the rivers as the water flowed from there into the sea it passed over volcanic rock containing sodium. the water leached out the sodium meaning the primordial ocean now contained but sodium and chlorine.

as the sea evaporated in many areas over the course of millions of years it left behind sodium chloride otherwise known as cells. and the process continues to this day the sun evaporates the water and sea salt is left behind and on very hot sunny days with steady winds were to kill a fine crystals form the coveted just said. today salt from ancient oceans is also found far from the sea the movement of the earth's tectonic plates push the salt either to high at elevations. pull in deep into the ground. so all. our salt originally hails from the seams and oceans one of the oldest ways of harvesting this vital material is by allowing sea water to evaporate in basins

salt crystals are left behind. but much of the salt formed millions of years ago now slumbers beneath the earth's surface we visit our walk salt mine in western germany to see how it is extracted. and that will need about 100 seconds to get to the bottom we're moving at 10 meters per 2nd. move of the time on heads the salt production here 900 meters below ground today they want to extract 8000 tons of salt from the mine and that calls for some unusual measures. yes we're going to blast chamber 911 of our biggest of its specials let's see how it goes. checking in and out is especially important when blast work is being carried out underground

but 1st the work has to be planned this is chamber 910 blasting here requires an entire team. but they'll also need to work at 2 other locations in the mine to reach the day's target of 8000 times. the mine is a vast labyrinth of tunnels and chambers 900 meters underground each day it expands a little further. before blasting can proceed in chamber 910 more work is needed elsewhere where the team won't meet its target. let a man doesn't need a g.p.s. to navigate down here i know i've been doing this for 32 years i'm in my element down here in the salt were nearly there like there's the load at. the wheel loader can pick up 20 tons of salt at a time it's so pure you could sprinkle it straight onto a boiled egg and eat it. as soon as the salt has been loaded up the roof of the

chamber needs to be secured. first any loose rocks are scraped off the surface. supporting anchors up to 3 and a half meters long are driven into the roof to prevent collapse. conditions are tough it's a stifling 40 degree celsius and the salt makes the air dusty and dry. at least that also means that nothing down here rests. just one hour to go to detonation. if you how's it looking. good we are on schedule but we need to get over to chamber 910 to prepare for blasting. the tunnels and chambers here in the salt mine are usually 7 meters high. but this is the one big exception. chamber 910 is 20

meters high. they're going to blast this ridge poles have already been drilled for the explosives. it's the moment of truth the explosives team moves into position. they normally blow up smaller walls . for this one they need half a ton of explosives. first detonators are placed in the drilled holes then explosives are inserted deep into the wall. the detonator wires are magnetic so their fragments can be retrieved from the salt afterwards. then it's time to move to a safe distance 3 kilometers away. all the leads come together at this central ignition point now they just need the final go ahead. you go

hello jaeger here is everything clear. ok we'll get started. ohms reading good let's go. then. wonderful that was very good. we tried back to the blast site. now needs to check the loose material that's been created by the explosions oh that looks good.

so far is happy yeah that's a feat yes very happy it worked beautifully the size and shape of the boulders is ideal a very good result this needed. and we're the 1st humans to ever hold the solid rock in our hands it's 250000000 years old there you go a gift for you thank you. and if you know how some of us here are your lives is 1500 pounds well yes that's what we needed to reach our goal of 8000 tons for today i'm a very happy that. if our old one is right why are great but a movie made up of. if you have a science question that's bothering you send it in as a video text or voicemail if we answer it on the show you'll get a little surprise as

a thank you just asked we look forward to hearing from you. for more science stories check out our website e.w. dot com slash science or look for us on twitter. that's all for now from tomorrow today your science program on d w thanks for joining us we'll be back next week until then stay healthy and state syria.

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dobbs just touched off t.-w. . every day counts for us and for our planet. pluto nightly news is on his way to bring you more conservation law how do we make students remember how can we protect habitats what to do with all our waste. we can make a difference by choosing smart new solutions well 1st jane said you know what worries me the model i do those limited series in blue 3000 on the c.w. and on mine. i'm not laughing to the death well i guess

sometimes i am but i stand up and with that the german thinks deep into the german culture of looking at the stereotypes aquatics think the future of the country that i'm not blaming. kiev needed something big for this drama day out to me it's all about a new i'm a joke join me. to meet the gentleman from the. post. for an ark. fantasy. to see. the

secrets which. starts december 25th. place. this is d w news live from berlin a christmas lockdown could be on the horizon here in germany high rates of 1000 infections and deaths are forcing the leaders to make some tough choices chancer on the americal prepares for emergency talks with her regional premiers also on the show bringing hope to ethiopia the 1st aid convoy arrives it since fighting broke

out a month ago but even when the sounds the alarm on the refugees caught up in the.