I've only started to look into the complexities involved in chip design (for my BitGrid hobby horse project) but I've noticed that in the Nature article, all of the discussion is based on simulation, not an actual chip.

Let's see how well that chip does if made by the fab. (I doubt they'd actually make it, likely there are a thousand design rule checks it would fail)

If you paid them to over-ride the rules at make it anyway, I'd like to see if it turned out to be anything other than a short-circuit from Power to Ground.