Thread: Scientists Create World's Smallest Snowman

The world's smallest snowman measures 0.01 mm across, with a nose just 0.001 mm wide. Credit: National Physical Laboratory.

(PhysOrg.com) -- David Cox, a scientist in the Quantum Detection group at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, is an expert in nanofabrication techniques. Recently, using the tools of his trade and a bit of humor, he has created his latest masterpiece: the world's smallest snowman, which measures just 0.01 mm across (about one-fifth the width of a human hair).

Cox created the snowman "by hand" using a system for manipulating nanoparticles. Rather than being made out of snow, the figure's head and body consist of two tiny beads that are normally used to calibrate electron microscope lenses. Cox welded the beads together with a tiny bit of platinum, and then used a focused ion beam to carve the eyes and smile. Lastly, he used an ion beam to deposit a tiny blob of platinum for the nose, which is less than one micrometer wide.

YouTube - The World's Smallest Snowman

As shown in the video, the snowman is mounted on a silicon cantilever from an atomic force microscope, whose sharp tip is used to feel surfaces in order to create topographic surveys at very small scales.
While Cox's snowman holds the record for the smallest, MyFox News notes that the tallest snowman record is still held by the town of Bethel, Maine. Residents of the town built a snowman with a towering height of 113 feet, 7 inches, on February 17, 1999.

ladies and gentlemen...the nobel prize for best use of a 32mil dollar grant goes to...these guys.

I don't think, and I am quite sure, that this is not too expensive to do, he already has the tools and the tiny amount of materials he used must be pretty cheap, if not free.
The most valuable thing he wasted is his time, but who says he didn't use his free-time ?
However I believe this is still a good way to use his free-time, firstly to show people what can the science do, in a funny and Christmas way, and secondly to entertain himself and make him discover non usual ways of work that might be useful afterwards.

dont they have better things to do?? like save the earth from pollution and stuff?? or have they given up on that?

Pretty interesting. Hope the next time they use their money in a better way.

Without being specific, I wonder if this is the scientists' compensation for being ridiculously big.

lol, i guess they were bored.

thats cool tho.
it shows creativity

Originally Posted by PafLeChien

I don't think, and I am quite sure, that this is not too expensive to do, he already has the tools and the tiny amount of materials he used must be pretty cheap, if not free.
The most valuable thing he wasted is his time, but who says he didn't use his free-time ?
However I believe this is still a good way to use his free-time, firstly to show people what can the science do, in a funny and Christmas way, and secondly to entertain himself and make him discover non usual ways of work that might be useful afterwards.

I agree with you here. You also have to look at the coverage it got for them which will in turn probablly bring in more money.

Everyone is assuming this has no use, but while he used it to make a snowman, the concept still applies that he can make other things at that same scale. Tiny objects which can be made so specifically at the small of a scale could have a useful purpose.

Maybe he will make a tiny case for passing secret notes inscribed on nanoparticles between his colleagues, the possibilities are endless!