August 23, 2001

9:27 AM

Nano-art.Japanese artist builds a sculpture of a bull that can only be seen with an electron microscope. It's the size of a single red blood cell. Next? Christo will wrap the head of a pin in pink tissue paper, I assume.
posted by rev- (12 comments total)

what next? let's start making "mini-me's"....
posted by dkhong at 10:11 AM on August 23, 2001

At least the museums won't take all day to walk around.
posted by briank at 10:14 AM on August 23, 2001

yeah really...but think about the cost of art supplies?

i need some conte, gauche, 300lb cold-press watercolor paper, and...hmmm...so you have one of those electron microscope thingies?
posted by th3ph17 at 10:29 AM on August 23, 2001

Careful! Don't inhale that masterpiece!

A little Vonnegut-ish ain't it? Was that Slapstick, where the Chinese miniaturized themselves?
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:49 AM on August 23, 2001

As long as no one shrinks sushi, I'm okay with this mini business.
posted by amyscoop at 10:56 AM on August 23, 2001

That's not a lot of bull...

The image is a little reminiscent of cave paintings, which makes me wonder if art-historical time will shrink proportionately; the nano-Guernica will be along in 20 minutes.
posted by liam at 11:48 AM on August 23, 2001

Hmm... I'm rather amazed at the commentary being generated here, metafilter a community that's often applauded for it's intellect can't come up with anything more than a one line joke. Not that I' don't take pleasure in such occasionally, but this news is very interesting, nano-technology is very interesting in general. I often wonder like a little kid at all the wonders it will provide.

So, come on, write up a steven den-bestle.
posted by tiaka at 12:34 PM on August 23, 2001

What happened to "it is not the size that matters but what you do with it"? Or was it quality and not quantity! Oh wait... wrong subject... Oops!
posted by gloege at 1:40 PM on August 23, 2001

Oh someone shoot me now. I just posted two one-line jokes. Damn!
posted by gloege at 1:40 PM on August 23, 2001

Did you read the article, tiaka? Folks here are just following the lead set by the reporter, who crams in every size-and-bull pun he can think of into the story.

Kawata is still not satisfied. His aim now is to take the bull by the horns and shrink it to a single micron.

Ug.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 3:41 PM on August 23, 2001

All I can say is where is my fingernail-implanted computer/smartcard/wireless internet connection.... Nano is way cool...
posted by fooljay at 3:59 PM on August 23, 2001

I heard about this on the BBC last week. I then did a news search, but I couldn't find anything. I'm curious why it took so long to be written up. (Or maybe I'm just looking in all the wrong places...)
posted by jetgrrl at 8:18 PM on August 23, 2001