Hacking Matter

Why programmable atoms are the ultima te killer app. Programmable matter is probably not the next technological revolution, nor even perhaps the one after that. But it's com ing, and when it does, it will change our lives as much as any invention ever has. Imagine being abl e to program matter itself-to change it, with the click of a cursor, from hard to soft, from paper t o stone, from fluorescent to super-reflective to i nvisible. Supported by companies ranging from Levi Strauss to IBM and the Defense Department, solid- state physicists in laboratories at MIT, Harvard, Sun Microsystems, and elsewhere are currently crea ting arrays of microscopic devices called "quantum dots" that are capable of acting like programmabl e atoms. They can be configured electronically to replicate the properties of any known atom and the n can be changed, as fast as an electrical signal can travel, to have the properties of a different atom. Soon it will be possible not only to enginee r into solid matter such unnatural properties as v ariable magnetism, programmable flavors, or centup le bonds far stronger than diamond, but also to ch ange these properties at will. Wil McCarthy visits the laboratories and talks with the researche rs who are developing this extraordinary technolog y; describes how they are learning to control its electronic, optical, thermal, magnetic, and mechan ical properties; and tells us where all this will lead. The possibilities are truly magical.