May 03, 2013

IBM creates World's Smallest Stop-Motion Film (with Atoms)

You're about to see the movie that holds the Guinness World Records™ record for the World's Smallest Stop-Motion Film. 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.



How did IBM researchers move all those atoms to make the world's smallest movie? This short behind-the-scenes documentary takes you inside the lab. Meet the scientists, see how they made a movie with atoms, and find out more about their research in the field of atomic memory and data storage.




The research that was being done which inspired this movie also means that 400TB hard drives will be in our not to distant future. Incredible.