To do so, he employs a combination of sophisticated instrumentation, including a kind of laser that generates an electron pulse that interacts with the atoms under study. Differences in the ways surface atoms are arranged can lead to intensified chemical activity and a differing array of chemical interactions. While these differences are trivial in a macroscopic world, in the microscopic world they matter profoundly. Molecule-Size Machines Engineers today are working with devices so small they cannot be seen except with the aid of powerful microscopes. Although nanotechnology remains a speculative field, its promise is vast, holding out the prospect of an enormous array of molecule-size marvels that will affect everything from human health to space travel.
Electricity still takes time to travel between electronics components.
When you're designing things that are very thin, the atoms at the surface don't have the same properties as those in the bulk. They behave in a different way because they're not bonded as tightly. How to harness these properties is a central and daunting research challenge. Another, and one that affects Elsayed-Ali directly, is designing and arranging the optimum amount and kind of laboratory equipment required for such sophisticated investigations. And that's not to mention bringing on and retaining interested graduate students, who, to work successfully in surface science, must have a concatenation of talent.