Atomic Scale Stop Motion (now with witty comments)

By Ben • science • 2 May 2013

Ever wonder what nanophysicists do for fun? Make stop-motion films where the pixels are individual carbon monoxide atoms, natch.

From the video's description:

You're about to see the movie that holds the Guinness World Records™ record for the World's Smallest Stop-Motion Film (see how it was made at http://youtu.be/xA4QWwaweWA). The ability to move single atoms — the smallest particles of any element in the universe — is crucial to IBM's research in the field of atomic memory. But even nanophysicists need to have a little fun. In that spirit, IBM researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to move thousands of carbon monoxide molecules (two atoms stacked on top of each other), all in pursuit of making a movie so small it can be seen only when you magnify it 100 million times. A movie made with atoms.

Also worth reading are the movie reviews in the comments. Some highlights:

UuNNNaMedD: "Film looks good because acting is very good!!! Atoms can I get your autograph please?"

yoRadioactiveSnake: "i liked the story but the Action scenes were dull and boring and at some stages just plain rude!This movie is terrible!!! Wheres the explosions and cgi.worst nicholas cage movie ever. 2/10"

alismouha: "A great cast wasted by sloppy direction. The writing is very powerful though."

by IBM
via Lydia, a student in my Physics classs

 

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