At Stanford University (working with IBM's Almaden Research Ctr) they've built a magnetic probe that can sense the electric fields surrounding atoms. It's a single silicon crystal 60 nm thick coated with a cobalt-nickel alloy. It can measure magnetic forces on the order of 10^-18 kg. They say it can look at the actual bonding configurations of a molecule, and "may make it possible ... to map the outline of atoms in complex molecules."
At Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England, Michael Pepper and other scientists have accurately measured the current created by a single electron. (Currently there is no definition of current in terms of electrons). They build a GaAs chip "biased to contain mobile electrons in a 2-D sheet near the surface." GaAs is piezoelectric, so applying an alternating current creates a 3-THz sound wave (No kidding--a three terahertz surface acoustic wave) which makes the electrons line up in wave fronts. They put a metal "split gate" on the surface, which presumably drains off electrons except for the one electron per wave that goes through the split. With such a high frequency, they can create a "relatively large and measurable" current. The experiment works at 4 K--earlier electron experiments typically require 50 mK. They quote Pepper: "We are thrilled that we can now capture a single electron and then move and manipulate it on a chip through distances that can be measured with a ruler."
More general coolness: There are several articles in this section about combining polymer electronics (for transisters and light emission--including lasers) with plastic, glass, or *stainless steel* film substrates to make almost-indestructible, square-meter-scale displays. "Basically you spin it on and then you make electrodes to get current in and light out." They're also talking about using commercial printing processes (eg. lay down toner with a laser printer, coat with chromium, dissolve the toner) to generate the circuits. Useful organic materials tend to be either ink-like or polymer-like, and there's a large amount of existing technology to manipulate such materials.
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Chris