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Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

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896 points tux3 | 4 comments | 01 Apr 25 12:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.69s | source
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janandonly ◴[01 Apr 25 13:09 UTC] No.43546380[source]▶
It takes a special kind of mind to appreciate this short post, not as fiction, but as truth and also as a jab at the physics sciences in general.
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ssivark ◴[01 Apr 25 13:59 UTC] No.43546891[source]▶
Why is it a jab at physics? It's honest and beautiful -- I imagine this is exactly what an experience on the cutting edge of experiment is like! :D

Making this measurement (an ancient discovery) with latest equipment is easy, but imagine what it might have been like for the people who actually discovered this property of germanium. Our tools/probes cannot advance much faster than our understanding of a (related) subject -- we are constantly inventing/improvising tools using cutting edge scientific knowledge from a related field.

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1. throwway120385 ◴[01 Apr 25 14:29 UTC] No.43547213[source]▶
I mean if you didn't already know how to solder to Germanium crystals you would have had to spend months experimenting with the material before you could get leads to stick.
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2. robocat ◴[01 Apr 25 18:59 UTC] No.43550244[source]▶
Google said (AI result):

  Soldering a lead to a germanium crystal typically involves using a gold-germanium solder alloy (like 88% gold, 12% germanium) due to its compatibility and good bonding properties
Also one of the search results implied etching first could help remove germanium oxide and used a different solder: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How-to-solder-germanium-wa...

Plus you'd need to decide how to get a good thermal connection to set the temperature of the crystal - maybe via one big lead?

Being in the future makes some things simpler?

The little experience I've had with lab physicists showed they needed a good ability to build, debug and maintain their own equipment. You can't always rely on technicians.

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3. qwezxcrty ◴[01 Apr 25 20:08 UTC] No.43550825[source]▶
In most but the very richest physics research groups there are no such thing called technicians. Except for shared equipment in centralized managed facilities like the nanofabs, even there you need to tune your own recipe...
4. throwway120385 ◴[02 Apr 25 19:20 UTC] No.43560460[source]▶
Good, but go back in time to the year 2000 and try to solve the problem with the technology extant at that time.