The search is on to discover new states of matter, and possibly new ways of encoding, manipulating, and transporting information. One goal is to harness materials' quantum properties for communications that go beyond what's possible with conventional electronics. Topological insulators--materials that act mostly as insulators but carry electric current across their surface--provide some tantalizing possibilities. Scientists at Brookhaven Lab describe one such material that should be right just right for making qubits. But this material doesn't obey the rules.