This is both stunning and an indication of how far our technology has to go before we catch up with biological information processing and the evolutionary development of mother nature. At the present rate of progress, with a doubling of technology abilities every 12 to 18 months, and assuming we continue inventing on the way, we will match the information processing density of a bacterium, in silicon, around the year 2020. To eclipse this density of bit processing per unit volume we will most likely have to delve down to individual atoms, and then elemental particles (electrons and protons), and perhaps beyond.

The physical manipulation of individual atoms is crudely possible today, and the reduction of the transistor to a single electron, with some potential beyond, has been demonstrated. Correspondingly, we now understand the processes of chemistry in biological computation, and of course electronics, sufficiently well to postulate, and contemplate the creation, of a new class of machinery. Here then is the prospect of a major change. With apologies to Marshall Macluhan, in the future it looks likely that "the message is the molecule" will be a serious proposition. Manipulating individual atoms to create specific structures with great precision, including molecules and smaller will blur the difference between bits and atoms - ultimately they may become the same.

This then poses the further prospect of embedded intelligence in everything. If our skin is a smart material, with more processing in a single flake than the most powerful PC so far created, then why not our clothing and other materials?

The most sophisticated of animals, the predators and hunters, have an amazing array of adaptive abilities and unseen technologies at their disposal. From the ultrasonic detection system of bats, through to the adaptive physical profile of shark skin, distributed sonar sensors, and electrostatic detector arrays of fish, there appears to be little that we have discovered that has not already evolved. The difference of course is the way the solutions are realised. But strikingly, many animals tend to wear their sensory and processing technology as an integral component of their skin.

In this realm the scales of a fish are extreme in size and relatively dumb, while the adaptability of shark skin sees elements 100 to 1,000 times smaller and independently smart. In this sense, probably the nearest we have come to emulating nature has been in the active clothing worn by fighter pilots and astronauts, and the crude geometric trim adjusters on aircraft wings. Ultimately, really smart materials, communicating at a molecular level, could see new revolutions in healthcare and transport.

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk