IEEE Spectrum magazine has a great, lucid, and wildly entertaining piece by Stanley Williams, an HP researcher who has spent the last decade researching the "memristor" a new type of fundamental electronics component that is bound to shake up computing. A memristor is essentially a programmable resistor with a memory; programmable via the voltage applied to it and capable of maintaining its programmed resistance without any current in the circuit.

Williams does a great job of explaining why the applications for such a component go far beyond the obvious ones (like smaller more efficient memory) to cases where we might finally be able to approximate the analog computing model used by the brain so the piece is a real mindbender. But it's also an incredibly entertaining read; though my father often gives me articles from this magazine, I have to admit that most of what I try to read from there has the effect of an elephant tranquilizer right before bedtime. By contrast this piece was super approachable and a real page-turner at the same time.

Finally, it's good to see a big tech company R&D arm doing this type of crazy fundamental research. During my time at HP, I've spent a lot of time with the HP Labs folks (a real feature of this job), and I've often found it a little sad to see how much pressure most of the researchers have to deliver something "implementable" back to the businesses as soon as possible. The fact that Williams has been given the leeway to spend more than 10 years chasing this elusive 4th fundamental component makes me feel like we are doing something right.