As useful and ubiquitous as they had been, slide rules quickly passed from use with the rise of portable electronic calculators in the late 1960s.

IBM puts its spin on magnetism

IBM scientists have developed a powerful new technique for exploring and controlling magnetism at its fundamental atomic level. The new method promises to be an important tool not only in the quest to understand the operation of future computer-circuit and data-storage elements as they shrink toward atomic dimensions, but also in the quest to lay the foundation for new materials and computing devices that leverage atom-scale magnetic phenomena.

"We have developed a window into the atomic heart of magnetism," says Andreas Heinrich, research staff member at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose. "We can now position atoms and then measure and control their magnetic inter-actions within precisely designed structures."