Minuscule diamond crystals show promise for applications that range from biological imaging to quantum computing, but they have been difficult to manipulate individually.

Romain Quidant of the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues developed a way to use infrared lasers to trap diamond nanocrystals with a single nitrogen atom inside. They could then change the polarization of the laser to twist and turn the nitrogen-atom axis and move individual nanodiamonds in three dimensions. Because the technique worked for crystals suspended in solution, the researchers believe it could be used in biological systems.

Nature Nanotechnol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.259 (2013)