Perhaps, but the claims regarding brain emulation and "thinking" are way off. To begin with, we don't even know the biological basis of thinking--neurons firing is something even a slug can do, and has as much to do with thinking as walls and doors have to do with a research institute.
It's like saying: since we understand gravity now, designing spaceships with warp drive is just round the corner.
Yes, calling something "the functional equivalent of the synapse" implies you know the function of a synapse...
The memristor has some functional properties in common with some synapses.
Neither synapses nor memristors have been fully characterized (though probably the memristor is better understood at this point).
The function of synapses in memory formation and information processing is poorly understood, but maybe having a nanoscale electronics component (memristor) that has some synapse-like attributes will increase the size of simulations to the degree that they will make interesting, testable predictions about how neural circuits work.
Yes, the brain analogy is grandiose fluff, which is a pity because the content is mind-blowing enough without it. If the discovery is as fundamental as the article implies, there's no telling what will be made of it.
It's like saying: since we understand gravity now, designing spaceships with warp drive is just round the corner.