Researchers at the University of Delaware's ACRES program - Affordable Composites from Renewable Sources - have developed a computer processor made from chicken feathers", according to the usually sober Assoicated Press.

According to chemical engineering professor Richard Wool(!) chicken features are better materials to work with than silicon "because they have shafts that are hollow but strong, and made mostly of air, a great conductor of electricity".

In a similar vein, AP reports that the main obstacle to Intel fabs becoming chicken plucking centres is that the "natural bumps and irregularities that come from using an organic base" make feather chips hard to fabricate. The microchip industry depends on materials that are "ultrasmooth and ultraflat", don't you know?

The Washington Post covers this breakthrough technology in rather more depth.
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