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Scientists realize one of the most elementary and oldest "gedanken" experiments in modern physics, namely, excitation of a single molecule with a single photon. This paves the way for further investigations in which single photons act as carriers of quantum information to be processed by single emitters.

The carbon molecule known as a buckyball, a member of the fullerene family, can act as a cage for a variety of other chemicals. And now researchers have used one to trap a single molecule of water. The work appears in the journal Science

By successfully changing the spin of a molecule, researchers have been able to perform an on/off operation for a molecular magnet. Such reversible switching paves the way for single molecule memory.