"Self-repairing electronic chips are one step closer, according to a team of US researchers. The group has created a circuit that heals itself when cracked thanks to the release of liquid metal which restores conductivity. The process takes less than an eye blink to bring the circuit back to use. The researchers said that their work could eventually lead to longer-lasting gadgets as well as solving one of the big problems of interplanetary travel..."

"The complexity of a modern processor is almost beyond comprehension. A working 1GHz core on ARM’s latest Cortex A9 processors occupies less than 1.5mm2, using the 65nm production process. To put that into perspective: a nanometre is a billionth of a metre, which means a nanometre is to a tennis ball what a tennis ball is to the planet Earth. “Microscopic” doesn’t even come close.

Taiwan has developed tiny microchips that could lead to lighter and cheaper laptops or mobile phones, researchers and observers said Wednesday.

State-backed National Nano Device Laboratories in northern Hsinchu city said it had succeeded in packing more transistors into smaller chip space than anyone else so far.

"Electronic gadgets like cellphones and laptops could become smaller, lighter and cheaper with this technology," Yang Fu-liang, the lab's chief, told AFP.