IBM Researchers Create World's Smallest Movie
Posted on May 1, 2013
IBM researchers created the world's smallest stop-motion film. IBM says it has been verified as the smallest by Guinness World Records. The movie uses thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action. IBM researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to move thousands of carbon monoxide molecules (two atoms stacked on top of each other).
Christopher Lutz, Research Scientist, IBM Research., said in a statement, "This Nobel Prize winning tool was the first device that enabled scientists to visualize the world all the way down to single atoms. It weighs two tons, operates at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface over 100 million times. The ability to control the temperature, pressure and vibrations at exact levels makes our IBM Research lab one of the few places in the world where atoms can be moved with such precision."
The movie is so small it can be seen only when you magnify it 100 million times. The first clip is the movie - A Boy And His Atom - and the second clip explains how it was done. A third video about the scanning tunneling microscope can be found here. Take a look: