What are semiconductors?

Question

Can you please summarize one of the following articles as detailed as possible concerning semiconductors. Both articles have terminology I don't know and concepts I am unfamiliar with. Can you please dumb-down one of these articles?

Large Hadron Collider: Final Synchronization Test A Success

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826121607.htm

Accidental Discovery Could Enable Development Of Faster Computers

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080623175329.htm

Creating Unconventional Metals: Quantum Halfway House Between Magnet And Semiconductor Discovered

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080820162856.htm

Thank you (:

Best answer awarded to most accurate and easiest to understand.

Answer 1

Semi conductors are those materials which conduct electricity to some extent.

Answer 2

Simplest answer to the question: semiconductors are neither fully insulators nor fully conductors.

This makes semiconductors useful because they can be manipulated to either flow electricity or not depending on what we do with them.  

I'll use a diode as the best example: put a positive charge on one leg and a negative on the other and current flows.  Reverse the charge and current does not flow.  Diodes work on the principle of dissimilar ions of semiconductor material creating a region that already tries to move electrons one direction even without a voltage applied.

A transistor is like a diode with an added feature: it has a gate, or a switch.  This gate can turn the transistor on or off (useful for computers), or it can regulate how much current flows through the transistor (useful in a radio), depending on how it is built and what job it has to do.

I haven't done much study on the Hadron Collider, so I've evaluated the second article.

Basically all atoms have electrons and all electrons spin. Not all electrons in a solid spin the same direction.  The material Magnesium Oxide, a non-magnetic metal, has shown a unique property of being able to sort out electrons of different spin directions simply by how thickly it is laid down on the semiconductor material.  This will be a new way to be able to turn on and off current flow, perhaps it will show to be a faster mechanism than we currently have with modern transistors.

Hope I have helped to clarify things for you.