These wires conduct electricity like normal wires but they can also be arranged so they act like mini-transistors, which are the smallest working unit of a computer.

The challenge is arranging these wires in a useful way. Manipulating a wire ten atoms across is itself a technical feat.

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The Lieber group has been able to control the arrangement of the wires on a surface using what the researchers call a "micro-fluidic channel."

Moving liquid in the groove of the channel aligns the ultra-small nanowires in the same direction.

"Take a river or fast moving stream; if you put logs in the river they line up," says Lieber.

Aligning nanowires is the first step in making electronic circuits that could be used in ultra-small computers.

In their February paper in Science, Lieber's group used nanowires to make basic electronic components. Now, he says, he has linked such units together-a discovery that provides a crucial first step towards building complex logical circuits, like microchips.