Modern information and communication technology is currently heading towards nanoscale semiconductor structures. Besides being small enough for integration, the semiconductor nanostructures offer a vast amount of opportunities to build new kinds of devices based on quantum mechanics and study physics along the way. I will present research around this field including the work we did in my former institutions, ETH Zurich and Aalto University, and then tell about our current plans and work at Lund University. The presentation will cover experiments on information-to-energy conversion in a nanoelectronic circuit, real time detection of electron tunneling and spin flips, as well as how to construct systems coupling single electrons to microwave photons.