Spin-sonics: Acoustic wave gets the electrons spinning Hard drives and a few other electronic components leverage spin-tronics, or the spin of the electron rather than charges. You could say electronics resemble pipes that sometimes burst, while spintronics resemble a more orderly fire bucket brigade. Advances in both spintronics and optics are making fundamental progress like this, and both are poised to invade consumer markets in the near future. Lasers today can easily be a thousand times more efficient, and exactly how it will all work out is anyone guess, but this is along the lines of inventing a new kind of transistor, that does anything you want, in a tiny space, at optical speeds, or a million times faster.
