We have built “the smallest violin in the world”

Physicists at the University of Loughborough in the United Kingdom have claimed to build what they call “the smallest violin in the world”. But like the Bbc Explain, it cannot be played. In fact, it can only be seen only with a microscope. “The finished piece is not greater than a grain of dust”, according to a university version in Phys.org. The project of several months – explained in this video– is a demonstration of the university’s nanolithography system, which allows the team to build and study structures that are smaller. The violin, for example, measures 35 microns long and 13 microns wide, and a micron is a millionth of meters. In other words, he would integrate inside a human hair.

“Although the creation of the smallest violin in the world may seem fun and games, a large part of what we have learned in the process has in fact laid the basics of research that we are currently undertaking,” said Kelly Morrison, head of the Physical Department. This research could lead to more effective computers or new ways to harvest energy, he adds. The researchers have chosen to make a violin – or at least a replica of a – to play the line of the “smaller violin in the world” used to make fun of the whining people.

Playable instrument? No New atlas. It also shows that researchers have both a sense of humor and marketing know-how, adds the site. Morrison has a blog This digs in the scientific details of the work. (More physical stories.)