Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering have created a small device, less than 100 nanometers wide, that acts almost like a small guitar amplifying the vibrations of electrons. This allows scientists to study the motion of electrons in two, one, or even zero dimensions and learn how they dissipate heat. The practical application comes from understanding such energy transfers. This will allow engineers to optimize the design of semiconductors, such as processors and memory, which currently require excessive cooling to run at high speeds.
For more details, see the official press release, or read their journal article in APL (subscription required for the full article).