Science Now

If you want your iPhone to run faster, you've got to shrink it. The bigger the device, the longer it takes electricity to move around the circuits. But making electronic circuits tiny poses problems. The laws of physics get weird at really small scales, so scaled-down versions of bigger devices may not work as well. Now, scientists may have taken one step toward surmounting that problem by creating the smallest conceivable mechanical switch—one involving just two atoms.