Roll up your laptop: flexible electronics

One day you may roll up your computer and toss it in your bag -- no more rugged titanium cases. Today's visionaries are planning a world of flexible electronics that will make even your svelte new laptop look clunky. The secret is in the silicon: the stuff electronic components are made of. Although silicon is a rigid and brittle material, scientists have discovered that when it is made into ultra-thin ribbons and wires -- 100 nanometers, or one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair -- the silicon becomes bendable. What's more, under the right conditions, it can even stretch.