Scientists at HewlettPackard and UCLA in the past two years have laid the groundwork for the firstever molecular computer. That be about to change. The size of computers were talking about are small enough to fit inside one of the fibers in your shirt says Phil Kuekes, computer architect in quantum science research at HewlettPackard Laboratories in Palo Alto, California. Now we are going to more serious stage.

Chemists are very good at making small things to an atomic scale. They won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for weaving together nanotubes to create material times stronger than steel and able to conduct electricity better than copper. They have built molecular switch, major milestone in being able to make entire computer memory chips just nanometers wide and much less costly to produce than silicon chips. Other nanotechnologylike applications that are in production or soon will be are nanomaterials to make sunscreens transparent, aerosol cans nonclogging, floor waxes harder and longerlasting, and glasses scratchresistant.

They won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for weaving together nanotubes to create material times stronger than steel and able to conduct

In Gerd Binning, Heinrich Rohrer, and team of researchers at IBMs lab in Switzerland introduced the scanning tunneling microscope, allowing scientists to see the atomic and molecular landscapes of objects. They won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for weaving together nanotubes to create material times stronger than steel and able to conduct electricity better than copper. The roots of nanotech date back to when Richard Feynman, California Institute of Technology professor and physicist, gave famous speech, titled Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom.

In Gerd Binning, Heinrich Rohrer, and team of researchers at IBMs lab in Switzerland introduced the scanning tunneling microscope, allowing scientists to see the atomic and molecular landscapes of objects. Since then, number of top scientists in the United States, Europe, and Australia have followed up with research into using electricityconducting nanotubes as the foundation for much smaller, faster, more powerful, and less expensive computing devices. Rice University professor Richard Smalley and his colleagues won the Nobel Prize and spurred invention of number of similar microscopes.