If you've balanced a laptop computer on your lap lately, you
probably noticed a burning sensation. That's because ever-
increasing processing speeds are creating more and more heat,
which has to go somewhere in this case, into your lap. Two
researchers at the University of Virginia's School of
Engineering and Applied Science aim to lay the scientific
groundwork that will solve the problem using nanoelectronics,
considered the essential science for powering the next
generation of computers. "Laptops are very hot now, so hot that
they are not 'lap' tops anymore," said Avik Ghosh, an assistant
professor in the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering. "The prediction is that if we continue at
our current pace of miniaturization, these devices will be as
hot as the sun in 10 to 20 years." To head off this problem,
Ghosh and Mircea Stan, also a professor in the department, are
re-examining nothing less than the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The law states that, left to itself, heat will tr