In 1965 Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every couple of years. Eventually the industry has interpreted that to mean that computing power of new microprocessors would double every 18 months. This exponential growth of computing power has lead to the explosion of small and handheld electronic devices over the last 20 years. Recently there has been concern that this process would begin to slow. As the size of transistors on a microprocessor has approached sizes as small as a few atoms the ability to scale the current style designs further appears to be reaching its limits. This has lead researchers to examine alternate materials and alternate processes. Today, a group of Hewlett-Packard researchers will release a report on their work on molecular-scale alternative to the transistor. So rush out and pick up your copy of "The Journal of Applied Physics" in which the research is being published or at least remember you heard it here first. By the way do not expect to see HP a computer based on this technology soon. We are still many years away from seeing this in a comercial product. But it looks like we have made a significant step toward the "Quantum Computer" described by Michael Crichton in his novel of time travel, "Timeline". For more details check out the New York Times article.