There's a lot more than meets the eye in developing the perfect potato chip. According to chemical engineer William E. Lee III, the ear is also key. To prove just how important, Lee ran experiments in which subjects wore white-noise headphones to shut off any auditory feedback as they ate. With a salty snack, we want to maximize teeth time and minimize tongue time. Lee is currently researching the effects of aging on the sense of taste.
Older people perceive things as less sweet than younger people.
Microchips begin as molten silicon which is formed into a solid crystal, sliced into wafers, polished, and then cut into the familiar squares. Although a plethora of engineering skills are needed to accomplish all these steps, it is at the point where the chips become integrated circuits that the truly remarkable engineering is done. And, a few dozen to several thousand of these circuits can be placed on each wafer. Because of the incredible advancements in chip technology, chip heat removal requirements have greatly increased. As smaller sized components carry more commands, the heat generated by chips has soared.