King Of The Hill character Dale Gribble would probably have a thing or two to say about this one. Scientists at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland have developed nanocomputers that can perform basic logic operations. These tiny computers use a technique called molecular computational identification (MCID), which can function as ID tags for nanoscale machinery.

Eventually, the ID process will be automated. Molecular combinations would simply be read off like "numbers from a license plate," as de Silva says.

"What really makes the numbers go through the roof is combining operations," de Silva says. Combinations of logical functions can create large numbers of unique tags by giving each one a different output. Bathing them in the various input chemicals that would display answers in the form of fluorescence.

These tags have tremendous implications medical research, allowing medical professionals to tag and identify individual cells.  They promise to be useful for nanotechnologists in keeping track of large numbers of tiny nanostructures. No doubt, Big Brother and his corporate cronies have their own ideas for this as well...maybe Hank Hill's paranoid friend isn't so far off the mark.