After five years of arduous synthesis and testing, Stirling's researchers came up with their first promising tweak of thalidomide, Revlimid, by moving one oxygenatom and adding a bit of ammonia.
The IBM team's innovation to create the first single molecule picture, of a molecule called pentacene, was to use the tip to pick up a single, small molecule made up of a carbon and an oxygenatom.