Oct 23 2008Cool!: The World's Smallest Writing
Japanese scientists have written the world's smallest letters using only a handful of atoms.
a research team at Osaka University has "written" the letters "Si" using an atomic pen that interchanges silicon and tin atoms, enabling those who have the time, resources, and patience to manipulate said atoms one by one. The results are a diminutive 2 x 2 nm (or 40,000 times smaller than a strand of hair) which took about an hour and a half to complete.
That's impressive and all, but I once had an Asian lady write my whole name on a grain of rice at the mall. Suck on that one, scientists!
Atomic pen achieves invisible victory [engadget]
Thanks to mkaggie, who can actually write with individual electrons.
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Reader Comments
1. Mvivanc - October 23, 2008 12:06 PM
First
2. ultradev - October 23, 2008 12:07 PM
Who the hell funds these "research" projects??
3. Mvivanc - October 23, 2008 12:07 PM
Cool =D
4. Matthew - October 23, 2008 12:07 PM
Fifth!!! wait... i never learned how to be cool
please help me
5. Monkey - October 23, 2008 12:11 PM
@ Matthew :: Maybe Mvivanc could help you he is really cool by being FIRST!!!!
6. OctoGooch - October 23, 2008 12:11 PM
Alright, now do The Last Supper!!
7. Monkey - October 23, 2008 12:12 PM
@ Matthew :: Maybe Mvivanc could help you he is really cool by being FIRST!!!!
8. Monkey - October 23, 2008 12:12 PM
@ Matthew :: Maybe Mvivanc could help you he is really cool by being FIRST!!!!
9. Monkey - October 23, 2008 12:13 PM
@ Matthew :: Maybe Mvivanc can help you. He is really cool by being FIRST!!!
10. EyeGoreGreen - October 23, 2008 12:14 PM
so the first word written with atoms by the Japanese is "Si"????
K?
11. EyeGoreGreen - October 23, 2008 12:15 PM
Osaka is bad ass.
12. EyeGoreGreen - October 23, 2008 12:16 PM
Okinawa is better
13. TochiroV - October 23, 2008 12:21 PM
http://ieee-virtual-museum.org/collection/event.php?id=3457012&lid=1
suckit geekologie writier, IBM did this in 1989,
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD NEWS
14. LSDiesel - October 23, 2008 12:22 PM
UPDATE: The first drawing done with atoms was a life size rendering of Shapie's bat and balls.
15. The_Don - October 23, 2008 12:23 PM
Almost as small as my dick...
16. Sharpie - October 23, 2008 12:31 PM
Dude your giving me way too much credit, my balls arent that big!
17. etr - October 23, 2008 12:31 PM
Silicon (Si). get it?
18. boredom - October 23, 2008 12:35 PM
wow it took 14 comments before someone used this to slander the size of someone else's genitals. Come on guys I expect better of you.
Oh and why the hell did they stop at Si? Didn't have the ability to write out silicon? WEAK!!
Oh and to help you out Daisy, it looks fuzzy enough to have been faked in MS Paint. Photoshop wasn't even needed.
19. Daisy - October 23, 2008 12:36 PM
Fake!!!
Thats an obvious fake. You can tell its a photoshop job because the shadows are all wrong.
This really looks like Baja's note to Max from the movi Never Back down. He asked her a question and she responded yes in spanish, but wrote it really small so the teacher couldn't see it.
20. EyeGoreGreen - October 23, 2008 12:40 PM
YAWN
21. boredom - October 23, 2008 12:47 PM
Damnit Daisy I said it WASN'T photoshop. Geez can't you read? MS PAINT
22. ShitBitch Carl - October 23, 2008 12:55 PM
@13
Xenon is bigger than silicon, and the paper was just published last week. Also, this was done at room temperature whereas IBM needed a cooled stage, and this involves much stronger interactions between the letter atoms and the surrounding atoms. But you are right, IBM was written on an atomic scale quite a while ago.
23. mamadough - October 23, 2008 12:56 PM
#2, indeed. shouldn't they be working on cold fusion or some shit? what f***ing applicable use is this? you asian scientist suck! you are not contributing to anything! bacon scented suits and atomic writing. no wonder godrirra stomps all over your shit!
24. Mvivanc - October 23, 2008 12:59 PM
First
25. Uncle Eccoli - October 23, 2008 1:20 PM
Is the picture supposed to be moving? It looks like it's moving.
26. krono - October 23, 2008 1:32 PM
To Quote Mr. Hoefler:
italic is smaller:
http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=148
27. Elmo - October 23, 2008 2:02 PM
how much of our money did they spend on that?
I don't care, it's awsome
28. Thumperchica - October 23, 2008 2:11 PM
*sighs* good to see we've made good use of our research grant $$ gentlemen.
29. Davo - October 23, 2008 2:26 PM
Shoot, looks just like what I used to do on my lite-brite as a kid.
Mom was so proud.
30. ShitBitch Carl - October 23, 2008 2:43 PM
There is a significant drive to manipulate understand very small things. It's mostly driven by our reliance and unstoppable consumption of electronics devices and the need to make them smaller and more efficient. That's where the money goes to, not writing Si. That's pretty well free - you can piss it into the snow.
So while writing Si in tiny letters isn't in itself terribly practical it is a dramatic demonstration of out improving abilities to manipulate matter in ways that we want. It's McLuhan babies. You're missing the message.
31. jaime - October 23, 2008 3:00 PM
'Si' is the chemical symbol of silicon, the atoms used. just in case somebody was wondering why japanese scientists wrote the spanish word for "yes" with atoms haha.
32. Sk8aterDudue1990000 - October 25, 2008 7:43 PM
PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS. YOU WILL BE KISSED BY THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE ON THE NEAREST FRIDAY,TOMORROW WILL BE THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE BUT IF YOU DONT POST THIS TO 3 THINGS ON GEEKOLOGIE YOU WILL DIE IN 2 DAYS THIS IS SCARY DONT STOP READING THIS YOU MUST POST THIS TO OVER 5 THINGS ON GEEKOLOGIE IN 143 MINUTES THEN PRESS F6 AND YOUR CRUSHES NAME WILL APPEAR IN BIG LETTERS THIS WORKS ITS SCARY
From in front of the screen its not that good from across the room it is easy to read
33. marrilliondillion - December 19, 2008 9:21 AM
they started to write the word `SHIT` but then lost their nerve.
34. louis vuitton - September 29, 2009 5:35 AM
Shoot, looks just like what I used to do on my lite-brite as a kid.
Mom was so proud.