Number 117 (Story #4), March 8, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein SUPERMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY is a new field in which scientists design complex structures---perhaps even molecular-scale computer-related components such as diodes and transistors---from molecules that spontaneously assemble themselves in liquid solution and perform their function through intermolecular interactions. An example of such "wetware" is a supermolecular structure in which a ringlike molecule shuttles between a pair of molecular sites along a polyether "string." Researchers are attempting to control the shuttling between molecular sites (at a rate so far of hundreds of times per second) so that it could function as a switch that stores information. Researchers are also working on lipid-based "molecular wires" that can conduct electricity in solution and may be used to interlink supermolecular switches. (Science, 12 February 1993.)