I thought we did something pretty significant, but I didn't think it was that significant. Still, the 1999 version of the computer was only what Heath calls a demonstration of architecture. While they could set their molecular switches on or off, they could only switch them once. So Heath and his colleagues have been working again with Stoddart's and Professor of Chemistry Fred Wudl's '64, Ph.D. '67 groups to concoct molecular switches that can be switched repeatedly, of which they now have four. But they're all based on very similar architectures.
Molecules just do things like that.
Everyone involved, including the funding agents in Washington, seems excited about the work. As silicon devices get smaller and smaller, they begin to edge into a realm in which quantum-mechanical effects become important. To pass this quantum-mechanical barrier requires devices that are inherently quantum mechanical, which is not the case with silicon semiconductors but is with molecular switches. Almost certainly molecules. Molecular-scale computers hold the promise of putting the calculating ability of today's most powerful supercomputers in a chip the size of a grain of sand.