By Peter Weiss
“What are the possibilities of small but movable machines? They may or may not be useful, but they surely would be fun to make.” —Richard P. Feynman, 1959
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Like a tiny powerboat streaking across a shallow lake of grease, the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope skids through a film of engine lubricant. The slick coating parts behind the onrushing needle, exposing a vein of underlying platinum until the lubricant flows back in again. In the laboratory of physicist Jacqueline Krim, the needle’s mad dashes test a lubricant for possible use on microscopic machines.