It may not be your next gaming computer, but Stanford researchers have made a pretty incredible technical feat: they’ve created a computer that uses the physics of water for its processing power.The chips inside the computer have been compared to a maze. By using a magnetic field, the researchers can guide a fluid through the chips, creating a slow but steady computational power based not on semiconductors but on fluid dynamics of droplets.While it may not be great for, say, running a Minecraft server, it’s a very cool demonstration of creative ways to compute. Plus, the applications in chemistry are amazing. Such a machine would be able to swiftly run chemical experiments, says ExtremeTech:Their technique can direct potentially millions of droplets around a chip, simultaneously, and each of these can be loaded with a different chemical for testing. A well-designed chip could make months of complex chemical experimentation into minutes — once the chip has been designed and built, the experiment designed, and the samples made and loaded onto the chip itself.For a more in-depth explanation, check out this video from Stanford:View full post on YoutubeSource: ExtremeTechJohn WenzWriterJohn Wenz is a Popular Mechanics writer and space obsessive based in Philadelphia. He tweets @johnwenz.
