Improbable Insights

Chip Materials Meaning Eric is travleling, but Loyd is joined this week by Jeff Anthis, a materials scientist for a company making the equipment used to make the chips that go in your phone, PC, TV, and more.  We think of semiconductors as being made from silicon, but there's much more to making a chip work than bare silicon. Jeff gives us a high level overview of the types of exotic materials that makes today's chips work. Tools Loyd has ten PCs in his basement lab, and not a single one of them has a standard CPU cooling fan. Instead, he uses sealed liquid coolers. They're quiet, cool, and take up less internal space than bulky, high end heat sink/fan combos. Fun  Want to get the most bang for your buck? Wait for Steam sales. Our Friday Night Follies LAN party group have been eyeing the zombie survival game "Dying Light", but the $60 pricetag seemed excessive. Along comes a Steam sale, and we scoop up a pair of four-packs. Net cost per player: $22.50. And all those games that go on sale for under $