Steering a Beam of 'Virtual Particles' to Manipulate Ultra-Small-Scale Particles in Real Time

The steady improvement in speed and power of modern electronics may soon hit the brakes unless new ways are found to pack more structures into microscopic spaces. Unfortunately, engineers are already approaching the limit of what light -- the choice tool for "tweezing" tiny features -- can achieve. But there may be a way of reaching beyond this so-called "diffraction limit" by precisely steering, in real time, a curve-shaped beam of weird "virtual particles" known as surface plasmons.