The IBM scientists have opened the door to the new scientific breakthroughs. In a close collaboration with the University of Regensburg in Germany, they measured the force required to move individual atoms on a forces.

"This result provides fundamental information about atomic scale fabrication and could pave the way for new data storage and memory devices," said Andreas Heinrich, lead scientist in the scanning tunneling microscopy lab at the IBM Almaden Research Center. "Our mission is to create the foundation for what could someday be called the IBM nanoconstruction company."

The scientists published their findings in Science magazine, in an article called "The Force Needed to Move an Atom on a Surface".

According to their measurements, the force required to move a cobalt atom over a smooth platinum surface is 210 piconewtons, while moving a cobalt atom over a copper surface takes only 17 piconewtons. To put this in perspective, the force required to lift a copper penny that weighs just three grams is nearly 30 billion piconewtons - 2 billion times greater than the force to move a single cobalt atom over a copper surface.

In addition, the researchers discovered that the force depends on the material used for the surface. The amount of force also changes greatly when a small molecule is used instead of a single atom.

The discovery could change our lives forever, as understanding of the atomic-scale processes at the heart of future nanotechnology endeavors could lead to new advances in computing and medical devices.

The computing world is facing the limitations induced by the exponentially increasing number of ever-shrinking transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit. Thanks to the IBM’s discovery the IT industry could find designs and manufacturing methods that will allow the creation of smaller and smaller transistors. Miniaturizing these devices to the ultimate limit -- the scale of just a few atoms - requires radically new designs and manufacturing methods

Also, the ability to measure the force it takes to move an atom provides a new window into the workings of atom-by-atom construction and operation for future nanodevices.

A video about IBM’s discovery can be found here.