TY - JOUR KW - Invited AU - Cronin Vining AB - In the 1950s there were hopes that semiconductor thermocouples would replace mechanical refrigerators, just as semiconductor transistors supplanted vacuum tubes. New materials may bring that goal a bit closer.Nothing so induces sleep as a lecture on thermodynamics. So we'll skip that part. BT - Nature DA - 2001/10/11/ DO - 10.1038/35098159 IS - 6856 LA - eng N2 - In the 1950s there were hopes that semiconductor thermocouples would replace mechanical refrigerators, just as semiconductor transistors supplanted vacuum tubes. New materials may bring that goal a bit closer.Nothing so induces sleep as a lecture on thermodynamics. So we'll skip that part. PY - 2001 SP - 577 EP - 578 EP - T2 - Nature TI - Semiconductors are cool VL - 413 ER -