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IBM creates tiny molecular movie


IBM's A Boy and His Atom, the world's smallest stop-motion film (IBM/AP)




US scientists have taken the idea of a short film down to molecular levels.


Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometres - there are 25 million nanometres in an inch - but hugely magnified, the movie - viewable at http://bit.ly/17ZmHIt - is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects.

The movie is titled A Boy and His Atom.

Videos showing atoms in motion have been seen before but Andreas Heinrich, IBM's principal scientist for the project, said this is the first time anything so small has been manoeuvred to tell a story. "This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world," Mr Heinrich said. "The reason we made this was not to convey a scientific message directly, but to engage with students, to prompt them to ask questions."

Jamie Panas of Guinness World Records said Guinness certified the movie as Smallest Stop-Motion Film.

IBM used a remotely operated two-ton scanning tunnelling microscope at its lab in San Jose, California, to make the movie earlier this year. The microscope magnifies the surface over 100 million times. It operates at 450 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (268 degrees below zero Celsius).

The cold "makes life simpler for us," Mr Heinrich said. "The atoms hold still. They would move around on their own at room temperature."

Scientists used the microscope to control a tiny, super-sharp needle along a copper surface, IBM said. At a distance of just 1 nanometre, the needle physically attracted the carbon monoxide molecules and pulled them to a precisely specified location on the surface.

The dots that make up the figures in the movie are the oxygen atoms in the molecule, Mr Heinrich said. The scientists took 242 still images that make up the movie's 242 frames.

PA Media