More than you might think, according to Professor Pawan Tyagi, director of the Center for Nanotechnology Research and Education (CNRE) at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). Carotene, the molecule that gives carrots their bright orange color, is showing surprising promise in Tyagi's research into technologies that could underpin the next generation of computing, making it more powerful, energy efficient and sustainable. While advances in computing have largely meant making silicon-based electronics faster and more powerful over the years, Tyagi is investigating a different path, exploring a variety of materials that could one day complement or even replace conventional silicon-based devices in some computing applications. Recognized in 2025 by the World's Top 2% Scientists Network for his groundbreaking research, Tyagi is helping position UDC’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the forefront of an emerging field known as molecular spintronics, where engineers, physicists and chemists are working together to answer one of computing's biggest questions: What comes after silicon? Opening the Door to New Computing Technologies Scientists have theorized for decades that individual molecules could someday serve as building blocks of electronic devices. The challenge wasn't imagining the possibility. It was figuring out how to connect molecules, some as small as one nanometer, into computing systems that could be manufactured practically and at scale. Tyagi believes his team has solved that problem. His patented Trenched Bottom Electrode Based Molecular Spintronics Device introduces a new way to integrate molecules into electronic hardware using conventional manufacturing techniques. Rather than limiting researchers to silicon alone, the approach creates a pathway for an almost limitless variety of molecules, each with unique electrical and magnetic properties. The innovation recently resulted in two U.S. patents and was presented in June at the prestigious Electronic Materials Conference. "One molecule could be DNA," Tyagi