" HOUSTON, Oct. 20, 2003 -- Chemists at Rice University have demonstrated that disordered assemblies of gold nanowires and conductive organic molecules can function as non-volatile memory, one of the key components of computer chips.

"A large part of the cost associated with creating integrated circuits comes from the painstaking precision required to ensure that each of the millions of circuits on the chip are placed in exactly the right spot," said lead researcher Jim Tour, an organic chemist at Rice. "Our research shows that ordered precision isn't a prerequisite for computing. It is possible to make memory circuits out of disordered systems." "