Surrey, London and Peking get a yuan for spintronics

Researchers from the University of Surrey, the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Peking University's Institute of MIcroelectronics have been awarded a £430,000 grant to get busy devloping silicon structures for use in spintronic devices. It's a three year project funded jointly by UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the National Science Foundation of China.

The UK is bringing its chops in watching and fixing the way electrons spin, while the Chinese are particularly good at building silicon nanotech. The aim is to investigate and build a silicon device where the electron spins are controlled by laser beams, which sounds as cool a 21st century job as exists on the planet.

Not that I wish to express any doubts about the Chinese nano-fabrication skills, but they'll have to go some to beat the London Centre's latest news announcement - a sculpture of a trumpeter only 100 nanometres tall.