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 oxygen atom.
Now the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a Pennsylvania judge was correct in allowing jurors to consider that evidence. (Thanks Abnormal Use for the tip.) The decision is interesting because it discusses not only the logical tension embedded in much modern products-liability law but the intellectual calisthenics federal judges must engage in when hearing a case based on state tort law.