At the heart of data-reading heads in new computer hard drives are devices whose exquisite sensitivity derives from manipulations of a magnetic property of electrons called spin.
Such devices, part of an ascendant technology known as spintronics (SN: 7/5/03, p.14: Available to subscribers at Magnetic current flows solo), might capture more turf from conventional electronics if spintronics developers could somehow render silicon magnetic, says Vincent P.