video showcasing the Curiosity rover’s landing. CNN and the New York Times both commented on the public’s burgeoning love affair with science, and on Facebook the popularity of IFLScience blog shares indicated the emergence of science as part of mainstream culture. IBM had a hidden gem that was ready-made for this audience: IBM can manipulate the atom. Few people know that IBM invented the Scanning Tunneling Electron Microscope, which enables the deliberate movement of single atoms, each a million times smaller than the width of human hair. Or that the company has lined up 12 atoms to create the world’s smallest data storage module, a crucial future need, as big data gets even bigger and storage needs become paramount. Rather than make another explainer video, we filmed A Boy and his Atom, an animated short film comprised of 242 still images and created using IBMs electron microscope and 65 carbon monoxide two-atom molecules. So, After All, What Does Make Work Great? A Big Idea, evidently. An engaging story. An appeal to the emotions as well as to reason. And it seems to me there are other things. In a word which I have usually resisted using, it must be “edgy”. It’s a word which best describes work after it’s made, although it often appears in creative briefs as an aspiration. What then does it mean other than being the most general of aspirations?