Chinese MIT prof accused of spying finds 'best semiconductor material ever' | Fortune

In July, scientists from MIT, the University of Houston, and other institutions announced they had proved that cubic boron arsenide performs better than silicon at conducting heat and electricity, opening up new possibilities for smaller and faster chips.

Go Coogs! :grin:

Also important to note about the misleading headline:

The team includes China-born professor Gang Chen, the former head of MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, who was the subject of a yearlong investigation by the Department of Justice before the agency dropped espionage charges because of lack of evidence.

I guess to get clicks. Wish they just stated the headline I put in the thread instead.

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The University of Houston is becoming an academic powerhouse.

I guess the spying part that didn’t actually happen is more important than the scientific breakthrough? I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!

It could be decades before semiconductors based on cubic boron arsenide are used in commercially available chips—if they prove viable at all. But ultimately, the new material may help designers overcome the natural limits of current models to make better, faster, and smaller chips, and its discovery is the kind of research the U.S. risked missing out on with a now-disbanded crackdown on experts like Chen.

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