Scientists Manipulate Atoms in Real Time

Imagine a future where iPods are capable of storing hundreds of thousands or millions of songs, where smart phones could play back several hundred times more feature-length Hollywood films than is currently possible, and where solar powered cells become dramatically more efficient in converting light to electricity.

It’s a future that may be possible thanks to research being done by IBM scientists in San Jose who have developed a new technique to manipulate individual atoms and measure how long they can store information in real time, over just a few billionths of a second. Their work could radically shrink a computer’s hard drive, allowing data to be stored on it more efficiently.