IBM launches two great Nanotechnology

IBM has demonstrated how to perform certain computer functions on single atoms and molecules, a discovery that could someday lead to processors the size of a speck of dust, the company said Thursday.
In a first report, IBM scientists describe major progress in probing a property called magnetic anisotropy in individual atoms. This fundamental measurement has important technological consequences because it determines an atom's ability to store information. Previously, nobody had been able to measure the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom.
In the second report, researchers at IBM's lab in Zurich said they had used an individual molecule as an electric switch that could potentially replace the transistors used in modern chips.
The company published both research reports in Friday's edition of the journal Science
Although still far from making their way into products, these breakthroughs will enable scientists at IBM and elsewhere to continue driving the field of nanotechnology, the exploration of building structures and devices out of ultra-tiny, atomic-scale components. Such devices might be used as future computer chips, storage devices, sensors and for applications nobody has imagined yet.