He could hear the excitement building next door - the clappers and noisemakers of partygoers celebrating 2005’s final hours.

John Campbell, then 22, sat in his house adjacent to that New Year’s Eve party on Kell Street in southwest Fort Worth. Anxious with anticipation and far from celebrating, he couldn’t enjoy his beer. He was alone in a computer world and about to meet his final judgment with the push of a button.

After a year of experimentation, 10 to 15 old computers and more than $500 in cash, Campbell’s best invention, an arcade machine-sized freezer brimming with gooey liquids, ice and techno-pieces, was ready to boot for the first time.

Fifteen minutes before midnight, Campbell’s “liquid computer” came alive in his bedroom, the first of its kind. The computer’s debut resulted in an early New Year’s celebration next door when Campbell entered the party like a soldier home early from a victory at war.

At that moment, the jovial 22-year-old would have seemed like any other undergraduate arriving to a party of friends. But one thing is certain - at that moment, Campbell fully intended to spark a computer-technology revolution with the items in his freezer next door. Since then, Campbell, along with his team of five specialists in areas such as materials, programming, chemistry and engineering, have reduced the size of the original liquid computer to that of a modern desktop. The technology, which Campbell says is 70 to 90 percent unpatented, achieves a mild form of super fluidity, a frictionless flow of liquid at extremely low temperatures, to increase the resistance of computer wires, which allows for a greater flow of electricity and higher efficiency.

“There hasn’t been a fundamental change in computer technology since 1982, and since then, it has just been putting more things in smaller places,” Campbell said. “I think it’s about time for something completely new that is so practical you can’t ignore it.” …