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World's Smallest Snowman Made Using Ion Beams and Tiny Tech

by Tim Stevens on December 23, 2009 at 01:46 PM

World's Smallest Snowman has Platinum Nose and Two Eyes Carved Out by Ion Beams
We can all recite Frosty's major components by heart, from his magical top hat down to his snowy base, but the creation of this snowman required some ingredients that Gene Autry would have never even imagined. The little guy above is apparently the smallest snowman in the world, about one-fifth the width of a human hair, and is the product of some pretty amazing techniques.

Its craftsman is David Cox of the National Physical Laboratory in the U.K. At the lab, Cox took two tiny beads of tin and welded them together using platinum deposits in a process called nanomanipulation. The nose, too, is made of that same stuff, while the eyes were carved using just a beam of ions, all manually controlled by Cox via an electron microscope. Watch the video below for a good idea of just how small this sucker is, and rest assured that even if he does come to life to wreak havoc, you won't have much to worry about. So long as nobody slips in your egg nog, anyway. [From: National Physical Laboratory, via Discovery News]

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Tags: electron microscope, ElectronMicroscope, hgg, holiday, nano technology, NanoTechnology, science, snowman, top

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