Cutting edge

To be on the “cutting edge” means to be at the latest or most advanced stage of new innovation or new events.

Today's story: Semiconductors
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Cutting edge

Today’s English expression is “cutting edge.” To be on the cutting edge means to be at the latest or most advanced stage of innovation or new events. We frequently use it with new technology or with new scientific research. That’s not always how we use “cutting edge,” but it’s the most common way.

In today’s lesson about the global chip shortage , I talked about cutting-edge semiconductors. Semiconductors have been popular in devices since the 1960s, but cutting-edge semiconductors are the most modern, most powerful types of semiconductors.

Cutting-edge semiconductors are made of the tiniest transistors. These transistors are three, five, and seven nanometers long. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. These cutting-edge chips are fast and energy-efficient. They’re the ones that go into phones and high-performance computers. We want smaller phones that do more and hold a charge for longer. For that, we need cutting-edge chips. We need the most advanced chips, and we need them to always improve.

There are a lot of semiconductors, though, that are not cutting edge. In my car, the windshield wipers come on when there’s rain on the windshield. The chips that make that work are not cutting-edge because they don’t need to do very much. Listen, it’s still a marvel of engineering. I have no idea how even those relatively simple chips work! But compared to the graphics processor on a new PlayStation, the chips on my windshield wipers are not cutting edge.

Let me give you a few more tech examples. California is investing in cutting-edge technology to fight wildfires. They are using satellites and artificial intelligence to identify fires, drones to fight the fires, and radar to help locate people trapped in danger zones. That’s cutting-edge technology because it’s the latest approach to fighting wildfires. The old system of helicopters, alarm systems, and media alerts will still also be used. The cutting-edge developments are the latest innovations; they’re not always the best. They’re not always the most effective. Often, cutting-edge developments are not the most effective in solving a problem—yet. But they are the latest research and the latest developments that could end up making a big impact. They may become the most effective solutions in the future, but today they are the newest and most advanced, even if they’re not the most widely used.

When I was a kid, my mom would take me to the shoe store to get new shoes. I’d sit down on a little stool and the man in the store would take out this metal device and I’d put my foot into it, and it would measure my foot and he’d give me the right size shoe. At some point, that must have been a cutting-edge device. I went to get new gym shoes the other day and it was a totally different experience. This was a cutting-edge way to pick out new shoes. I stood on a pad while a device measured my foot. (I’m sure the device had a lot of chips!) I walked back and forth while another device (more chips) measured the arches of my foot and determined if I favored one side or the other when I walked. The computer then matched me to a pair of shoes that would fit my foot and my walking style. That’s cutting edge!

“Cutting edge” is also used to describe new, innovative scientific research. Cutting-edge cancer treatments are the latest, most modern methods for treating cancer. Researchers at Duke University are exploring ways to inject material into wounds that will help your body heal faster. Now, that’s cutting-edge medical research. The old technology of patching the wound still works, but this cutting-edge research could help people recover from injuries even faster.

Hearing aids have been around for decades. Traditional hearing aids have a delay of 4 to 8 milliseconds. The device needs that time to process and amplify sound. That doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but a delay of 4 milliseconds interferes with a user’s ability to understand, process, and participate in conversations. For many years, the cutting-edge aspect of hearing aids was to make them smaller and more comfortable. Today, they’re tiny. But what was once cutting edge is now commonplace. The cutting edge characteristic today, though, is to cut down on the delay. Today, cutting-edge hearing aids process sound in as little as half a millisecond.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote of the week is from the banker J.P. Morgan. It’s about personal ambition. He said, “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.” I like that quote. Sometimes you can’t imagine the changes ahead, or you think that your goals are too ambitious. But just go as far as you can see—do as much as you can. When you get there, when you’ve done as much as you can imagine today, then you’ll be able to set better and more ambitious goals from there. I really like this quote a lot. “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther,” says J.P. Morgan.

See you next time!

You are in the right place if you want to stay on the cutting edge of everything going on in the world. Our philosophy here is that you’ll enjoy learning English more—and you will learn more—if you like what you’re listening to. And that’s why we choose current events and trending topics as the basis for everything we do at Plain English. This is all stuff you can talk about with your friends and colleagues right away.

And if you’re looking for a way to practice—if you don’t have a lot of English-speaking friends where you live—then we have you covered there, too. As part of Plain English Plus+ , we have live conversation practice on Zoom. JR and I are both there. We also have sections to practice your writing and practice everything you learn here at Plain English. Come join us at PlainEnglish.com/Plus and you could be on our next Zoom call one day soon.

And that’s all for Plain English for today, July 12, 2021. Don’t forget to check out the full lesson resources at PlainEnglish.com/380. We’ll be back with a new lesson on Thursday.

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Story: Semiconductors