Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
News Science

Scientists Create 'World's Smallest Violin' (bbc.com) 24

Physicists at Loughborough University have created what they believe is the world's smallest violin, measuring just 35 microns long and 13 microns wide -- smaller than the width of a human hair, which typically ranges from 17 to 180 microns in diameter. The microscopic instrument, created using the university's new nanolithography system, serves as a demonstration of precision manufacturing capabilities that researchers will apply to studies of computing efficiency and energy harvesting methods.

The team used a NanoFrazor machine employing thermal scanning probe lithography, where a heated needle-like tip etches highly precise patterns at the nanoscale onto a chip coated with gel-like resist material. While the individual violin takes roughly three hours to produce, the research team spent several months refining their techniques to achieve the final result, which exists as a microscopic image rather than a playable instrument.

Scientists Create 'World's Smallest Violin'

Comments Filter:

The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts. -- Paul Erlich

Working...