Tiny but powerful, microelectronics are essential to daily life today. Scientists are working to make them even smaller and more energy efficient.

In the most powerful X-ray facilities in the world, scientists can analyze samples so small they contain only 10,000 atoms. Smaller sizes have proved exceedingly difficult to achieve, but a multi-institutional team has scaled down to a single atom.

A multi-institutional team discovered surprising properties in a magnetic material. This discovery could be applicable to information storage, such as computer memory and high-efficiency microelectronics.