Mini-Transistors
     THE FIRST COMPUTERS EVER BUILT WERE SO BIG THEY FILLED UP WHOLE BUILDINGS. 
NOW WE HAVE COMPUTERS THAT ARE MUCH MORE POWERFUL AND YET ARE SMALL
ENOUGH TO SIT ON YOUR LAP. RON ANDRES IS A PHYSICAL CHEMIST AT PURDUE
UNIVERSITY ANDHE'S WORKING ON WAYS TO MAKE COMPUTERS EVEN SMALLER BY
SHRINKING THEIR ELECTRONICS. 

     Andres: "If you can get the transistors to be that much smaller what you can do is
pach that much more inromation or do that many more computations on a very small
region of a surface. . . you would have the wrist watch that would have the power of the
current desktop computer"

     THE TRANSISTORS INSIDE COMPUTERS ARE ALREADY PRETTY SMALL BUT ANDRES
WANTS TO MAKE NETWORKS OF WIRES MERE ATOMS LONG.  TO DO IT ANDRES WANTS TO
BUILD TINY WIRES AND TRANSISTORS AND THEN LINK THEM UP INTO CIRCUITS.  TO BEGIN,
HIS LAB HAS CREATED TINY GOLD HEXAGONS.

     Andres: "the ones we've been working with. . . only have 6 atoms on an edge." 

     THE NEXT STEP IS TO LINK THESE UP INTO LONG WIRES.  NEEDLESS TO SAY, LITTLE
GOLD HEXAGONS ARE HARD TO WORK WITH.  THEY TEND TO WANT TO GLOM TOGETHER
INTO A DISORDERED BUNCH, SO ANDRES COVERS THEM WITH A MATERIAL THAT MAKES
THEM SLIPPERY.  THAT WAY THEY WON'T STICK TO EACH OTHER COMPLETELY.

     Andres: "they just automatically form hexagonal patterns sort of like a bubble raft
in a bathtub, they just come together, but they can't come all the way together."

     NEXT ANDRES ADDS MOLECULES THAT BIND ON TO THE GOLD.  THE MOLECULES
FORM A BRIDGE FROM HEXAGON TO HEXAGON CREATING A WIRE JUST ATOMS THIN. 
ANDRES HAS SHOWN THESE COULD WORK AS TRANSISTORS FOR EXTREMELY SMALL
COMPUTERS.  WHAT'S MORE  THE TINY WIRES LET ONLY ONE ELECTRON PASS THROUGH AT
A TIME WHICH WOULD GIVE COMPUTERS MUCH MORE PRECISION THAN THEY HAVE NOW.