Last month, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley announced the creation of the first compact monomolecular transistor ("made" from a single carbon-60 molecule, less than one nanometer in size, see photo). There have been attempts to make a monomolecular transistor before, but they were made in the form of a tube rather than a ball, and they were significantly larger in size. A transistor in general is a “switch” that controls the flow of electrons.