A Boy and His Atom: the world's smallest movie

On some level this is nothing more than a commercial for IBM.

On some other level, though, this commercial is pretty freaking cool. These scientists, admittedly paid by IBM, used an electron microscope to move individual atoms to then make frames in a stop-motion animated 'movie.'

In terms of materials science, the ability to build materials atom by atom, on a nanotechnology scale, may well be the ultimate destination of materials building, not waiting to see what how the atoms will combine on their own under temperature and pressure.

If only we could work atom by atom to perfect a material.