British physicists claim they’ve created the “world’s smallest violin” — and, by the looks of it, they could take a bow for their masterpiece invention.
The brainy bunch at Loughborough University used nanotechnology to build the teeny instrument, which is no bigger than a speck of dust and can only be seen with a microscope.
Made of platinum, the mini-instrument measures 35 microns, one-millionth of a meter long, and 13 microns wide. Loughborough explained on its website that it’s tiny enough to fit within the width of a human’s hair.
The scientists created the violin, which is just a microscopic image and isn’t playable, as a test of the school’s new nanolithography system, which allows them to build and study structures at the nanoscale.
The project references the expression “Can you hear the world’s smallest violin playing just for you?” which pokes fun at people being overly dramatic.
“Though creating the world’s smallest violin may seem like fun and games, a lot of what we’ve learned in the process has actually laid the groundwork for the research we’re now undertaking,” Kelly Morrison, professor of experimental physics at the university, said on its website.
“Our nanolithography system allows us to design experiments that probe materials in different ways – using light, magnetism, or electricity – and observe their responses. Once we understand how materials behave, we can start applying that knowledge to develop new technologies.”
The violin was made by a NanoFrazor, a nano-sculpting machine that uses a technique where a heated, needle-like tip writes patterns. First, a chip was coated with a gel-like material and then placed under the machine, effectively burning the violin pattern into the surface.
After the pattern was etched, the underlayer of the gel dissolved, and a violin-shaped hole remained. A thin layer of platinum was then inserted into the chip, which was then rinsed with acetone to remove any remaining particles.
The prototype took three hours to create. However, the team’s final version took several months.
“Depending on how you engage with technology, there are people who are always looking to have something that runs faster, better, more efficient,” Morrison said in a YouTube video.
“That requires … finding a way to scale down.”
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