An identified neuron of the leech, a Retzius cell, has been attached to the open gate of a p-channel field-effect transistor. Action potentials, spontaneous or stimulated, modulate directly the source-drain current in silicon. The electronic signals match the shape of the action potential. The average voltage on the gate was up to 25 percent of the intracellular voltage change. Occasionally weak signals that resemble the first derivative of the action potential were observed. The junctions can be described by a model that includes capacitive coupling of the plasma membrane and the gate oxide and that accounts for variable resistance of the seal.

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Zero-bias anomalies in the conductance through quantum dots have recently been identified as Kondo resonances and explained in terms of the Anderson impurity model. The effect requires a degeneracy and it has been proposed that this should occur for odd electron numbers on the dot. In this paper we present data, obtained on a split-gate quantum dot with a small number of electrons, which are in disagreement with this expectation. The mapping of the Anderson model on the quantum dot is discussed in terms of an interacting N electron system demonstrating why this expectation can fail.

The magneto resistance of a narrow single quantum well is spectacularly different from the usual behavior. At filling factors 2 3 and 3 5 we observe large and sharp maxima in the longitudinal resistance instead of the expected minima. The peak value of the resistance exceeds those of the surrounding magnetic field regions by a factor of up to three. The formation of the maxima takes place on very large time scales which suggests a close relation with nuclear spins. We discuss the properties of the observed maxima due to a formation of domains of different electronic states.