In other words, some machine-based tutoring is approaching the effect size of real human tutoring and there is less variation than one might expect as the grain size of tutoring becomes finer.

FORBES: How Machine-Based Tutoring Could Disrupt Human Tutors

Just as grain size in silver halide film ultimately limits the amount of detail you can see in a photograph, the background noise produced by the sensor does much the same in digital imaging.

ECONOMIST: A die-hard analog photographer goes digital

The problem is that individual still holograms contain so much information that they are usually captured on film (indeed, so much information is needed that the film in question has a grain size a tenth to a hundredth that of standard photographic film).

ECONOMIST: Researchers can now broadcast moving holograms

And have your vet inject your pet with a tiny microchip implant (it's about the size of a grain of rice).

CNN: Tips for road tripping with pets

Micro chipping involves a vet inserting a tiny device, about the size of a grain of rice, under the dog's skin.

CNN: Give a dog a cell phone

The ultrasound generator used in this technique can focus its energy into a space about the size of a grain of rice.

ECONOMIST: Thermal treatments of cancer are remarkably effective

Such tags, the size of a grain of rice, are currently used to tag everything from pets to televisions, and cost a few dollars apiece.

ECONOMIST: Just press print

Such nanotechnology involves engineering carbon-based polymer molecules, one-millionth the size of a grain of sand, that attach to fibers to wick away moisture and resist stains, water and static.

FORBES: Best Places for Business

These can be as tiny as a millionth the size of a grain of salt which can amount to as little as a few cells of skin or sweat left in a fingerprint.

BBC: RELATED BBC SITES

Hewlett-Packard has invented a wireless data chip that can store 100 pages of text or 15 seconds of video on a dot about half the size of a rice grain, with potentially dramatic applications in everything from health care to photography and marketing.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Many livestock farmers are losing money feeding high-priced grain to their herds, which could force them to shrink the size of their operations.

WSJ: Grain Prices Soar as U.S. Slashes Outlook

Now Russia was an absolute disaster area in 1998, so the fact that its economy has doubled in size since then should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

FORBES: Russia's Economy Is Not in Decline