Subatomic IT
"Previously untapped properties of electrons and nuclear particles may lead to unimaginably small and power-efficient computers."
I came across this interesting article, where "The work of Jim Allen, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is so far removed from everyday experience that he has to explain it by analogy: a tabletop covered with refrigerator magnets. "They all interact with each other and do funny dances," he says.
But these are not ordinary magnets; they are nanoscale "quantum dots," and their dance is far from random. The tiny magnets can be choreographed, or programmed, to solve a logic problem. A tweak to one dot causes its neighbors to do "interesting things," Allen explains.
The magnets employ a property called electron spin. For decades, computer circuits have been based on the charge, or flow, of electrons. But electrons not only flow; they also spin up or down, offering a new way to store, manipulate and communicate information. Electron spin was discovered in the 1920s, though practical applications have been limited."
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