- Researchers at the University of Zurich were able to manipulate and control single colloidal particles to store, read, erase and rewrite information. He did this by placing a colloidal silver nanorod between two charged surfaces, creating a region surrounded by a local energy minimum, turning it into a trap. To summarize: the trap can be forced to be "on" or "off" -- creating a binary switch, which translates to the 0s and 1s that are the basis for computing.
- These "colloidal bits" can also be arrayed, potentially at high densities. According to Chemistry World, the next step is to make the single particles interact with each other. Currently, data can be read by illuminating the particle with polarized light.
- These findings were recently published in Nature. From the paper: "This will hopefully lead us to a demonstration of rudimentary computation in the fluid phase."
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