"drastically" as "beneficially" or "impressively"

[Joel S. Berson]

Referring to the creation of a single-atom transistor by a team from
the University of New South Wales and Purdue University, John Markoff
(who should know better) ends his article in today's NYTimes (paper;
same online) with

"Shrinking conventional computer circuitry ... drastically increases
the amount of data they can store."

I suppose we can expect dire consequences when that single atom
decides to invoke the laws of quantum mechanics and changes its state
unpredictably.  But perhaps the pursuit of nanophysics is more
drastic (effectively severe, like strong medicine) than dramatic.

Joel

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