Best bits: Applications of microprocessors: Mechanics on a chip

If one can build a computer on a chip, why not nozzles, pumps, valves, and sensors on chips? Hessarchers at Stanford University´s Integrated Circuits Laboratory and IBM´s San Jose Research Laboratories in California have developed techniques that put devices like these on silicon wafers. The micromechanical structures are fabricated in much the same way as conventional ICs.