The scanning tunneling microscope, invented at IBM in 1981, relies on a quantum effect: electrons leap across a tiny gap between a sharp tip and a surface. It lets scientists see individual atoms, and even move them. In 1989, Don Eigler spelled out "IBM" using 35 xenon atoms. The microscope's inventors won the Nobel Prize in 1986.
Cooled below −183 °C, oxygen turns into a pale blue liquid. Pour it between the poles of a strong magnet and, instead of flowing away, it hangs suspended between them. The reason lies in its unpaired electrons, which respond to the magnetic field. Liquid nitrogen, by contrast, is colourless and pours straight through.
In 2012, Felix Baumgartner jumped from a capsule hanging beneath a balloon, about 39 kilometres up. In that extremely thin air almost nothing slowed him down, and he reached around 1,358 km/h in free fall, or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to exceed the speed of sound with nothing but his own body.