Boffins build nanowire lasers from nappy-rash cream Spread here
for ultraviolet diodes A new breakthrough in zinc oxide–based
semiconductor nanowire lasers may support applications that
range from killing viruses to stuffing more stuff on a DVD.
"People in the zinc oxide research community throughout the
world have been trying hard to achieve this for the past
decade," the leader of the research team, Jianlin Liu, said in a
statement announcing the breakthrough. "This discovery is likely
to stimulate the whole field to push the technology further.”
Pardon our provincialism, but the existence of a zinc oxide
research community was news to us. Perhaps it shouldn't have
been, in light of the many and varied uses of the compound, from
diaper-rash ointment to cigarette filters to vulcanization. And
now, thanks to Liu – a professor of electrical engineering at
the University of California at Riverside's Bourns College of
Engineering – and his UCR and University of Central Florida
research teammates, zinc oxide can