Ever wondered how nanoparticles grow? Then you're in luck, because a team of French researchers has developed a system that can monitor the development of nanoparticles in real time. The scientists, from the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique Grenoble, the University of Paris, CNRS Research Centre for Crystal Growth Mechanisms, Université Louis Pasteur and Laboratoire Louis Néel, examined the growth of palladium islands on a magnesium oxide surface and cobalt nanodots on gold (G Renaud et al. 2003 Science 300 1416).