The properties of materials depend on how their atoms are arranged. Rearrange the atoms in coal and you get diamonds. Rearrange the atoms in soil, water, and air, and you have grass. And since humans first made stone tools and flint knives, we have been manipulating atoms in great thundering statistical herds by casting, milling, grinding, and chipping materials. We rearrange the atoms in sand, for example, add a pinch of impurities, and we produce computer chips. We have gotten better and better at it, and can make more things at lower cost and with greater precision than ever before.

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