Question: whats the molecule that you made do?

Robert Woolfson answered on 15 Jun 2013:

Right now, they sit on my desk doing nothing. In a few weeks, after we run some experiments on them, we might be trying to use them to make computers.

The computers we want to make aren’t like the computer you’re reading this on. Instead of working on binary, i.e. on or off, 1 or 1, they can be both on and off at the same time. It’s called a quantum computer, and involves a lot of very complicated maths but the basic idea is that we can do all kinds of things that are nearly impossible with current computers. If you want to know more have a look at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/18/quantum-mechanics-computing-speed