Censtor Co

In the scientific wonderland of Silicon Valley, where big things are being made smaller and smaller, Ed Zschau is holding a tiny sliver of metal tipped with a device that just might be a high-tech breakthrough. It is so phenomenally small that its parts are measured by the width of an atom. But it is so big, Zschau says, that there is no way he could ignore it and instead make a second try at the U.S. Senate.

In the scientific wonderland of Silicon Valley, where big things are being made smaller and smaller, Ed Zschau is holding a tiny sliver of metal tipped with a device that just might be a high-tech breakthrough. It is so phenomenally small that its parts are measured by the width of an atom. But it is so big, Zschau says, that there is no way he could ignore it and instead make a second try at the U.S. Senate.

Former Rep. Ed Zschau, a Republican moderate widely viewed as a repeat contender for the U.S. Senate after his narrow loss to Sen. Alan Cranston in 1986, said Friday that he has decided not to run in next year's election. Zschau said he explored the possibility of running for Cranston's Senate seat over the last several months and concluded that although the race was winnable, it would be too disruptive to the Silicon Valley computer company he has headed for about two years.