This technological front continues to advance apace. The next century may or may not see much of interest happening in space, but interesting things are almost certain to emerge from nanotech. Perhaps not the things some of its biggest dreamers expect, but cool stuff nonetheless.

Two articles, same subject. Old stuff (Oct. 17), but maybe one or two haven't read it yet.

Bell Labs Scientists Usher in New Era of Molecular-Scale Electronics

'Scientists from Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs have created organic transistors with a single-molecule channel length, setting the stage for a new class of high-speed, inexpensive carbon-based electronics....

Though just a prototype, the success of the simple circuit suggests that molecular-scale transistors could one day be used in microprocessors and memory chips, squeezing thousands of times as many transistors onto each chip than is possible today.

The main challenges in making molecular-scale transistors are fabricating electrodes that are separated by only a few molecules and attaching electrical contacts to the tiny devices. The Bell Labs researchers were able to overcome these hurdles by using a self-assembly technique and a clever design in which each electrode is shared by many transistors....

"The molecular-scale transistors that we have developed may very well serve as the historical 'bookend' to the transistor legacy started by Bell Labs in 1947," said Federico Capasso, physical research vice president at Bell Labs.'

Tiny transistor breaks new limits

'A group of researchers at Bell Labs have made tiny functioning transistors a million times smaller than a grain of sand.

Making large quantities of the tiny components should be straightforward because they self-assemble....

Each molecular transistor is 10 times smaller than any components created with today's most advanced chip making techniques....

Bell Labs said it could be a decade before the tiny transistors started to appear in commercial devices....'