  In this minireview, we outline the recent experimental and theoretical
progress in the creation, characterization and manipulation of Majorana bound
states (MBSs) in semiconductor-superconductor (SC) hybrid structures. After an
introductory overview of the broader field we specifically focus on four of our
recent projects in this direction. We show that the emergence of Fano
resonances in the differential conductance in a normal lead-Majorana
nanowire-quantum dot setup can be exploited to determine if a single MBS is
contacted by the normal lead and the quantum dot providing an experimental test
of the non-locality of MBSs. In the second project, the tunnel-coupling to two
MBSs in an $s$-wave SC-Majorana nanowire Josephson junction (JJ) leads to a
finite contribution of the MBSs to the equilibrium Josephson current probing
directly the local spin-singlet contribution of the Majorana pair. We then
shift our focus from MBSs forming in nanowire systems to MBSs forming in
topological JJs. In a single sheet of buckled silicene with proximity induced
superconductivity two local electric fields can be used to tune the junction
between a topologically trivial and topologically non-trivial regime. In a
Corbino geometry topological Josephson junction two MBSs harbored in Josephson
vortices can rotate along the JJ and, in the course of this, will be exchanged
periodically in the phase difference of the JJ. The tunneling current in a
metal tip coupled to the JJ is shown to exhibit signs of the anyonic braiding
phase of two MBSs.
