and to see. the scene of the train. sequence that. starts december 26th. up. our planet contains many treasures we extract metals and minerals from the ground to use for building roads machinery am 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 tomorrow today the science show on. this is according chemist engineer and entrepreneur back in the 1960 s. he formulated what is becoming known as moore's law roughly speaking it says the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every 2 years that means computers steadily become more powerful more predicted but the trend would continue up to now it has computer chips are getting even smaller 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 so tiny a powerful. but getting computer chips to downsize is not

a matter of magic it needs the brains of people like the peter kurtz. 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 song to put it into the chip circuitry is stenciled on to the slide but instead of projecting the picture on to a screen you focus it onto a silicon wafer with a light sensitive code to play. the image can then be developed much like a photograph and at the end you have your computer chips. with technology we can now 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 feet 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 a long way franks blue light a short wavelength and ultraviolet light a very short wavelength but what does that have to do with chip manufacture it was a small i'm proper tough to 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 he has a wavelength of 13 member half nominators. that's less than a 10th of previously large wavelengths. then your. comments you can create images of structures in much sharper resolution. it to. exactly 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 plane but not even yet. to get that you need to trick a laser beam is aimed at a droplet of liquid tin the high energy light heats the tin 222-0000 degrees celcius transforming it into a plasma which radiates the desired. the post laser does that $50000.00 times a 2nd. so that takes care of a we have a light source what's missing is the optical system being. glass lens is a no good for the task they only transmit certain wavelengths and 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 apply as many as 100 layers why is the house . if the mirrors. it 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. this was. in practice around 70 percent. reflectivity is a measure of performance and 70 percent is a great value. the magic lies in constructive interference which works like this and a. part of it is reflected from the rest penetrates the top layer to reach the next more mist 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 wafer and the next generation computer chip

take shape. for 20 years it's a great feeling to hold the gadget in your hand with an e.u. reach chip inside and to know that we help 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 that technology is already in use the latest smartphone carry chips fashioned with extreme ultraviolet light is just one more confirmation of moore's law or which says the number of transistors that fit on a chip doubles every 2 years it's. told in the 20 teens people started saying that the limits of moore's law would be reached. and it wouldn't be possible to go any further. technology we now have the

technology with which we can continue pushing moore's law over the next 10 years. a lot. deli. 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. the search for gold has led to bloody conflicts in many regions and the process is 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 tons 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 to be a laptop or smartphone most electronic book with the function without. the electronic waste from 5 computers contains a total of one cram 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 desert. 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 beams a mixture of metals which are melted down together in a furnace at $1300.00 degrees celsius 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 above. the heavy metals end up in plates like these they're mostly copper but they do contain quite a bit of gold. going on for stents wife 2

of these plaints way just under $800.00 kilos as one troy ounce of gold is distributed throughout those plates $31.00 grounds our aim is to extract it with a minimum of loss so exciting. beached ranch in 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 goals . 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 just less beneficial the assets have to be disposed of in an elaborate process and the smelting furnace

churns out large amounts a company brain is working on a completely new method it's using bacteria to recover the gold from the electronic scrap even though bacteria normally avoid the process of c o 2. but recycling gold might soon become more environmentally for. property if an organism can survive in high concentrations of the metal quite apart from being able to get the 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 mittal solvents 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 extractor. 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 are nakia lated with the bacteria which are suspended in the yellow the quick. thanks to nutrients in the water the bacteria thrive and we can 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 a 2nd type of bacteria in these pellets they soak up the cold like a sponge. the pellets are then burned off that leaves a residue of small but very pure gold nuggets.

with this like the process takes place and a very gentle 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 mounting process for the bacterial approach is safer and more eco friendly than the smelting and chemical processes the next stage is to scale up brains bring the solution it may look very promising but it's too soon to say whether the bio extraction methods will win out. to mind gold or other precious metals you usually have to blast your 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 were from kenya wanted to know more. to brooke's growth. crowds like these consist of hard compact styles often in bizarre formations they 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 sound and finally to celt the process of erosion the silt has carried away by water and often ends up in the ocean as a settlement on the seabed. over millions of years the must become stunts and cement into sedimentary rock. where 2 or more of earth's 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 mass 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 line stone deposits which together with moss and blue alkie create a firm crust that is impermeable to water. thus the rock does grow a few millimeters a year thanks to the calcium carbonate. 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 puts. 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 all teeth. it's warmed by the mineralisation 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 when 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 all planet was a red hot mass as it cooled volcanoes hold matter from its in a most court to the surface liquid rock rich in sodium gushed from fishes in the

earth's crust and the gas clouds from the volcanic crater has contained not only water vapor but no rain. 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 for to kill

a fine crystals form the coveted. today's salt from ancient oceans is also found far from the sea the movement of the earth's tectonic plates pushed the salt either to high at elevations. deep into the ground. so all. our salt originally hails from the seas 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 would meet the earth's surface we visit our walk salt mine in western germany to see how it is extracted.

from that we'll need about 100 seconds to get to the bottom we're moving at 10 meters per 2nd. just 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. if we're going to blast chamber $9101.00 of our biggest a bit specials let's see how it goes. checking in and out is especially important when blast work is being carried out underground. first 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 oh i know i've been doing this for 32 years i'm in my element down here in the salt we're 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 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 holes 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 the 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 you know we drive back to the blast site. now needs to check the loose material that's been created by the explosions oh that looks good. so please happy yeah that's a feat and yes very happy it worked beautifully the size and shape of the boulders is ideal a very good result this ought to be able and we're the 1st few months 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 the nearly this is 1500 pounds well yes that's what we needed to reach our goal of 8000 tons for today i'm very happy that. the problem is right why our big bottom if you. 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 ask 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 m d w thanks for joining us we'll be back next week until then stay healthy and stake

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this is the wu news live from berlin germany heads into nearly a month of walked out retailers hopes of a christmas recovery are dashed as stores and schools are told to close from wednesday the government says a resurgence of the coronavirus left it no choice also coming up. as germany tightens its lock down to the us is about to.