Smart Molecules Act as Computer Transistors

Researchers have discovered a single-molecule switch that can act like a transistor and store binary information such as the 1s and 0s used in classical computing. The molecule is around five square nanometers in size — more than one billion of them would fit onto the cross-section of a human hair. The researchers believe that molecules like the ones they have discovered could offer information density of around 250 terabits per square inch, which is around 100 times the storage density of current hard drives.