No linked challenges.
No linked visions.
Reusable electronic newspaper
In the future the tradition where a subscriber receives a printed paper copy a daily newspaper delivered home every morning, will change
For as long as modern newspapers have been about, the process of an event turning into news has been roughly like this: something happens and a reporter writes a story. Then the story is printed on paper and early the next morning a paperboy delivers the paper to the subscriber. Finally the story is read and the paper gets tossed away. The same repeats day after another.
In the view of the modern, environmentally conscious, information society this traditional way has two major flaws: the time from an event to when it reaches the papers’ subscriber is quite long and the environmental stress the production and distributing paper causes is quite large.
Of course, we already have a partial solution to these problems: online newspapers and electronic facsimile editions. The problem with these, however, is the user interface: most people prefer the feel, size and layout of the traditional newspaper instead of a computer screen.
This is where developments of nanotechnology come in. In the future it will be possible to read an electronic newspaper that looks and feels a lot like traditional paper edition. This would combine the best of both worlds: a paper which has the most current news and the feeling of the traditional paper.
The answer lies in transparent, high-performance transistors that can be assembled inexpensively on both glass and plastics. These transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) are composed of highly aligned, single-walled carbon nanotubes, each about 1/50,000th the width of a single human hair. From these transistors one can construct paper thin, flexible display screens where all the information contained in a traditional newspaper. This blank newspaper, where new news would be wired from editorial offices every day (or many times a day) would be lightweight, flexible, durable and reusable. This new electronic paper would be even luminous so no outside source of light would be needed to read the paper.
American Chemical Society (2009, February 5). Toward \'Invisible Electronics\' And Transparent Displays. ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com ¬ /releases/2009/02/090204170129.htm
Opportunity: Diminishing pollution of making and distributing newspapers, increased ablility to reaction to recent events
Threat: Huge possible growth in electricity demand if all newspapers became electric
Do you have ideas for this vision?
or
Would you like to comment?
Log in or Sign up
Comments