A pair of researchers have found evidence suggesting that a new kind of computer could be built based on liquid crystals rather than silicon.
According to the article published in the journal Science Advances, the computer would be built using the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules - similar to those found in LCD TVs – to store data, with calculations expected to look like "ripples" through the liquid.
If successful, the computer design made by Žiga Kos at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and Jörn Dunkel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would provide an alternative to electronics for the building of computers.
Liquid crystals consist of rod-shaped molecules that slosh around like a fluid. In the case of nematic liquid crystals, these molecules are mostly parallel to each other, to the point of the odd molecule that faces the wrong way having to be removed for the development of TV screens. This uniformity is however...