92: The Chemistry of Computers & The Great Moon Hoax of 1835

Episode notes

What does chemistry have to do with computers? Well it might just be the best way to understand what’s actually going on inside a CPU! And how could there have been a moon hoax back in 1835? Well it involves cosmic pluralism and Edgar Allen Poe so buckle up!

Images we Talk About:
Vaccuum Tubes in Computers
The First Integrated Circuit
Another early Integrated Circuit Prototype
People Etching a Circuit Mask
TED How are Microchips Made Video
Etching from the Great Moon Hoax

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:23) The Chemistry of Computers
(01:04:27) The Great Moon Hoax of 1835
(01:49:15) Outro

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We also learn about:

BOOOO, a first time interview for this podcast, tom tries to define an integrated circuit, semiconductors, being mid at conducting is vital, silicon silica and silicone, quartz is one of the most abundant minerals and it’s just silica, the metalloids, transistors are so important but so vague, Caroline and Ella were not expecting a trans rights joke, for once of your jokes deserved more appreciation, the quest to make the smallest switch, semiconductors or on the edge of flipping between conductive or not, vacuum bulbs, The Tyranny of Numbers, photo-lithography, etching shrinking then stenciling a circuit, then computers would help make computers, Moore’s predictions of the future of computing, wait did you just explain Moore’s Law? my new graphics card comes with a new unified theory of physics, transistors are now the width of a few strands of DNA, quantum troubles, relying on moor’s law can stifly creativity, but also making transistor’s smaller is interesting science! Ella & Caroline never thought they’d understand computers like this, it’s almost like they’re going to announce they’re discovering aliens, cosmic pluralism, Sir William Herschel discovered Tom’s Anus, we were in a way disproving life on other planets, Gruithuisen sees roads on the moon, “the power of imagination on the man is large”, alien theories sold papers, Edgar Allen Poe’s SciCom satire, quoth the lunarian – nevermore, the daily drops escalated the and on the fifth day we got moon racism, the etchings of lunar life, lets get bibles and colonialism on the moon baby, Richard Adams Locke is the true author, Herschel was on a research trip while this was going down, it sounds like we’re the perfect team for a hoax, aside from being a critique of science communication it also made bank and made the sun the most bought newspaper in the world, Locke’s non denial denial, selling property on the moon, this changed journalistic standards, the occasional hoax actually isn’t okay but fine, Herschel actually thinks it’s hilarious, Locke X Poe collab balloon hoax, this sparked a trend of science fiction.

Sources:
Cornell History of Semiconductors
Euro Physics News 100 Years of Semiconductor Science
Royal Society of Chemistry on Silicon
PBS History of Transistors
PBS Invention of the Integrated Circuit
IEEE Historhy of the Integrated Circuit
Moore’s Original Paper: Cramming more Components onto Integrated Circuits
UPenn: Is Moore’s Law Really Dead?
MIT: The Death of Moore’s Law
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Wiki: Lunar Pareidolia 
Book- The Moon in the Greek and Roman Imagination
Wiki- Anaxagoras 
Futurism: Franz von Paula Gruithuisen’s Venus Science Fiction
Smithsonian Blog- The Great Moon Hoax
Library of Congress: Blogs 
Paper- The “Great Moon Hoax” of 1835
Linda Hall Library: Richard Adams Locke
Britannica: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835
Library of Congress: Blogs : Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon Hoax
Library of Congress: The Sun (New York) 1833-1916
Internet Archive: Great Moon Hoax Papers
Edgar Allen Poe Society: Richard Adams Locke