As 2016 winds to a close, and in the spirit of the holiday season behold the world’s smallest snowman, measuring in at 3 microns. To put that into perspective, the smallest grains of sands are approximately 60 microns.
Mini snowman, ~3 microns in height (Photo credit: Western Nanofabrication Facility)
This creation is the work of Canadian nanotechnologists from the Western Nanofabrication Facility. The snowman is made from three ~1 micron silica spheres stacked using electron beam lithography. The eyes and mouth were cut with a focused ion, beam while the arms and nose were sculpted with platinum.
Tiny snowman amongst other 1 micron silica spheres. (Photo credit: Western Nanofabrication Facility)
A cool feel good story to round off 2016 as we head into 2017. Happy New Year all!