merkle@parc.xerox.com (Ralph Merkle) (02/19/91)
The Economist of February 2nd, 1991, page 82, said (paraphrased for brevity): Shigeyuki Hosoki and his colleagues at Hitachi's Central Research Laboratory in Tokyo removed individual sulfur atoms from a crystal surface of molybdenum-disulphide at room temperature in vacuum by applying very short five-volt pulses to an STM tip. They spelled out "PEACE '91 HCRL". A picture accompanied the article. The surface had a hexagonal grid, so the letters were somewhat crooked. [Wow. Any idea how long the probe tip lasts, i.e. does it disintegrate and/or get clogged with sulfur atoms? --JoSH]