EoW July 2011

their findings in the 13 th May issue of the journal Science . Claiming “a paradigm shift in metallurgy,” Dr Johnson summarised the accomplishment as taking the economics of plastics manufacturing and applied it to a metal with superior engineering properties. The method leads to mass production of metal-glass products that were previously made of plastic and holds enormous promise for metal forming applications. (“Beating Crystallisation in Glass-Forming Metals by Millisecond Heating and Processing”) In its announcement of the breakthrough, Caltech (where metallic glasses were discovered in 1960) described the strategy employed by the Johnson team to master the rapid crystallisation of these materials, the chief impediment to their use in making parts. To heat the metallic glasses uniformly and rapidly enough, the researchers employed the technique known as ohmic heating. They fired a short and intense pulse of electrical current to deliver an energy surpassing 1,000 joules in about one millisecond (about one megawatt of power) to heat a small rod of the metallic glass. The pulse of current heats the entire rod at least a thousand times faster than anyone has before, according to Prof Johnson. Taking only about half a millisecond to reach the right temperature, the now-softened glass could be injected into a mould and cooled immediately. To demonstrate the new method, the researchers heated a metallic glass rod to about 550ºC and then shaped it into a toroid in less than 40 milliseconds. Despite being formed in open air, the moulded doughnut-shaped object was found to be free of flow defects and oxidation. ❈ The procedure, called rapid discharge forming, has been patented and is being developed for commercialisation, Dr Johnson says. In 2010, he and his colleagues started a company, Glassimetal Technology, to commercialise novel metallic-glass alloys using this kind of plastic-forming technology. ❈ The name Benjamin Braddock is not associated with metallurgical marvels. But Alex Knapp, writing in Forbes , was moved by the news from Pasadena to recall the Dustin Hoffman character in “The Graduate.” While Mrs Robinson inspired the 1967 film’s famous theme song, Mr McGuire was responsible for its most memorable piece of dialogue: “Just one word. Plastics.” Mr Knapp, whose speciality is futurism and cutting-edge technology, said: “Mr McGuire’s advice to Benjamin may turn out to be obsolete.” (“Caltech Researchers Develop Cheap Process for Metallic Glass,” 15 th May)

to block enforcement of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Net-neutrality order issued in December 2010. But the resolution faces uncertain prospects in the Senate, in which Democrats have a narrow majority, and President Barack Obama has said he will veto it. Some Internet activists and businesses claim that Net-neutrality regulations are needed to prevent Internet service providers like Verizon Communications, AT&T and Comcast from blocking or slowing down Internet traffic generated by competing firms – or suppressing politically controversial content. But, as noted by technology writer Hiawatha Bray of the Boston Globe , critics of Net-neutrality rules – many of whom oppose federal regulation of the Internet on principle – argue that free market competition would prevent such abuses. (“House Tells FCC to Drop ‘Net Neutrality,’”9 th April) The FCC board of commissioners voted 3 to 2 to impose Net- neutrality rules on Internet companies that use telephone or cable wires to deliver broadband service, but granted wider latitude to companies offering wireless broadband access. The board reasoned that, because wireless systems have less data-carrying capacity than wired broadband systems, wireless companies may need to block activity that threatens to overload their networks. The FCC order immediately came under fire from critics who argued that the agency lacks legal authority to regulate the Internet. Verizon filed suit in January to block the order, but in early April a federal judge threw it out on a technicality: it had been filed before the Net-neutrality rules were published in the Federal Register. Verizon planned to re-file the suit after the FCC order is officially published. Mr Bray reported that Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, is sponsoring legislation that would permanently block the FCC from regulating the Internet. She told the Globe : “We look forward to forever prohibiting the overreach of the Federal Communications Commission.” Elsewhere in telecom . . . ❈ According to the chief operating officer of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc, a shortage of airwaves in the US renders the planned buyout of the Deutsche Telekom unit T-Mobile USA Inc by AT&T Inc “inevitable.” Lowell McAdam told a JPMorgan Chase & Co conference in Boston on 18 th May that smaller wireless carriers will probably also combine. The larger companies will work to use capital more efficiently, he said. Carriers like Verizon, which co-owns its wireless business with Britain’s Vodafone Group, are pushing for access to more spectrum for their US mobile networks, to accommodate more users and space-eating applications. But merger activity inevitably generates concerns in Washington about stifled competition, and in the week before the Boston conference executives of T-Mobile and AT&T were summoned before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights to defend their proposed $39 billion deal. “Everybody’s worried about the [AT&T/T-Mobile] merger,” said Mr McAdam, who is in line to assume the CEO position at Verizon later this year. “To me, that was inevitable. That was kind of like gravity. The spectrum in the US is not in the hands of carriers that can do something with it.” Dorothy Fabian – USA Editor

Telecom

Nobody owns the Internet – but that does not deter either side in a US congressional stando over ‘Net neutrality’ So-called Net-neutrality rules that would prevent telecom service providers from intentionally slowing or blocking Internet traffic have become the subject of bitter contention between the two main political parties in the US Congress. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 240 to 179

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EuroWire – July 2011