The little bits get littler.

The particles have been theorized to exist for about 40 years now, but scientists at the DoE's Berkeley National Lab have, for the first time, directly observed electrons breaking down into spinons and holons.

Just as the body and wheels of a car are thought to be intrinsic parts of a whole, incapable of separate and independent actions, i.e., the body goes right while the wheels go left, so, too, are electrical charge and spin intrinsic components of an electron. Except, according to theory, in one-dimensional solids, where the collective excitation of a system of electrons can lead to the emergence of two new particles called "spinons" and "holons." A spinon carries information about an electron's spin and a holon carries information about its charge, and they do so as separate and independent entities. [...]

The idea behind spin-charge separation is that electrons behave differently when their range of motion is restricted to a single dimension, as opposed to three or even two dimensions. When moving through one dimension, for example, the electrons are lined up head-to-tail, making the repulsive force between their negative electrical charges overridingly dominant. The restricted movement of electrons through one-dimensional material was expected to give rise to collective effects that would be strong enough to break the information flow of spin and charge from a single electron. [...]

Another area in which spinons and holons could play an important role is in the development of nanowires, one-dimensional hollow tubes through which the movement of electrons is so constrained that quantum effects dominate. Nanowires are expected to be key components in future nanotechnologies, including optoelectronics, biochemical sensing, and thermoelectrics. [...] The creation of spinons and holons in one-dimensional systems is also expected to have an impact on the future of spintronics, a technology in which the storage and movement of data will be based on the spin of electrons, rather than just on charge, as with our current electronic technology. Spin-based electronic devices promise to be smaller, faster and far more versatile than today’s devices.