Most are produced in huge, ultra-clean factories using batch processes similar to those for making silicon chips.

ECONOMIST: Electronic screens as thin as paper are coming soon

For Professor Rakesh Kumar at University of Illinois the demise of Moore's Law is being hastened by an insistence on making silicon chips operate flawlessly.

BBC: Mistakes in silicon chips to help boost computer power

And just as the cost of making faster and faster silicon chips is rising exponentially, so is it getting more and more difficult to develop new drugs.

FORBES: Genomics Won't Mean Cheap Drugs

The computer maker on Wednesday is discussing its advances in making optical-communications components from silicon, the mainstay material used in conventional computer chips.

WSJ: IBM Claims Breakthrough in Laser-Based Chips