The booms and busts of molecular electronics

Forty years ago, a New York University graduate student named Arieh Aviram opened his Ph.D. dissertation with a bold suggestion: "Taking a clue from nature, [which] utilizes molecules for the carrying out of many physical phenomena, it may be possible to miniaturize electronic components down to molecular size." What Aviram was proposing was revolutionary: leapfrogging the ongoing miniaturization trend of Moore's Law by substituting single organic molecules for silicon transistors and diodes.