Scientists in the United Kingdom have developed a way to monitor the health of individual cells by recording ion flow down to the resolution of about 10 ions.

The technique could revolutionize the way we test drugs and carry out environmental sensing.

An array of semiconductor electrodes is spaced very close together to form a cross, upon which a cell is placed. The tip of an atomic force microscope, made out of a semiconductor material designed to measure charge from the electrodes, is placed on top of the cell.