OP here with a few disclosures. Firstly, the paper is paywalled, but there is an article discussing it at http://phys.org/news/2015-05-scientists-atomic-scale-

OP here with a few disclosures. Firstly, the paper is paywalled, but there is an article discussing it at http://phys.org/news/2015-05-scientists-atomic-scale-hardware-natural.html http://phys.org/news/2015-05-scientists-atomic-scale-hardwar.... Secondly, after double-checking the abstract, I made the editorial decision to replace the subtitle "nanoarchitectonic design of a complex system for natural computing" with "design of a functional device". My reasoning was that the original subtitle seemed hopelessly opaque (outside the field, presumably), and that the development of a testable device seemed to be the most interesting news. Thirdly, I know next to nothing about the topic, and am only guessing that this is newsworthy. My introduction to the news was from a post at phys.org by Lisa Zyga (http://phys.org/news/2015-05-scientists-atomic-scale-hardware-natural.html http://phys.org/news/2015-05-scientists-atomic-scale-hardwar...). Phys.org is a frequently breathy science news site, but Ms. Zyga has been blogging there for years and is a decent science reporter. I am hoping that this post will be of some interest to those with domain knowledge, and that I can learn from any discussion or criticism of the paper.