Small anomalies and long-range consequences

Abstract

Even with children’s building blocks one can make an intuitive first guess at the structure of localized imperfections. However, experimentally designing, identifying, characterizing and controlling them is far more difficult. One reason is that many defect sites have extremely long-range consequences and, in these cases, intuition is hard. Nevertheless, the need to do this and predicting the potential benefits are significant. Long-range effects uses are not just for semiconductors, but apply equally to radiation dosimetry, archaeological dating, information storage, plus chemical and biological reactivity. One can gain intuition by considering human interactions and how our lives are defined, not just by immediate contacts, but by political, social, legislative and factors that control the flow of goods and information across the globe.