teensy tiny titchy movie

May 1, 2013 9:04 AM

w.s.m [Worlds smallest movie]
posted by zoo (15 comments total)

Excellent!
I'm going to show this in my Intro to Film class this very afternoon.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:25 AM on May 1, 2013

The extraordinary feat of atomic precision has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.

This is what Lamar Smith should be using.
posted by DU at 9:32 AM on May 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

It is a showpiece for IBM's efforts to design next-generation data storage solutions based on single atoms.

!!!

Buried lede.
posted by ColdChef at 9:44 AM on May 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Pepsi Big Blue.
posted by w0mbat at 9:45 AM on May 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

It is a showpiece for IBM's efforts to design next-generation data storage solutions based on single atoms.

!!!

Buried lede.

They haven't actually gotten that working. Their R&D department is just screwing around with moving a few dozen atoms around. I don't see any reason to think they've made any significant headway towards actually having a real marketable storage technology.
posted by aubilenon at 9:55 AM on May 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Someone needs to make this into a Game & Watch style handheld game.
posted by oulipian at 9:56 AM on May 1, 2013

I found this fascinating. And then I saw that my local big-city newspaper ran the story in the entertainment section, and I found it depressing.

Naturally, on the paper's website, the sports story of the day has a hundred comments; this story? None.
posted by Ickster at 10:10 AM on May 1, 2013

I only have one, small criticism of that movie...
posted by mazola at 10:12 AM on May 1, 2013

This is one of the coolest and most adorable things I've ever seen.
posted by RainyJay at 10:13 AM on May 1, 2013

The CBC Website, mentions that the atoms are the Oxygen parts of carbon monoxide (I wonder where the carbon is?) and that they had to manipulate the atoms remotely at minus 450 degrees F.
posted by bitteroldman at 12:33 PM on May 1, 2013

the atoms are the Oxygen parts of carbon monoxide (I wonder where the carbon is?)

According to the IBM researcher the BBC interviewed, the "atoms hold still at their new positions because they form chemical bonds to the copper atoms in the surface underneath", so it sounds like the carbon forms a bond with a copper substrate. He also says that by placing the tip of the STM probe "close" to the atoms they are able to "tug" them to different locations.
posted by junco at 1:09 PM on May 1, 2013

There are no small parts; only small actors.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:23 PM on May 1, 2013

"Up and at them!"
posted by kirkaracha at 3:48 PM on May 1, 2013

They also did a bit of Star Trek promotion.
posted by ColdChef at 4:15 PM on May 1, 2013

Carbon monoxide on ultra-cold surfaces is an old trick. It's a linear molecule that stands up perpendicular to the surface, so it appears as a single "dot" to an STM. I'd be willing to bet that it's not simply "carbon", as the article states.

Note that this idea was demonstrated almost 25 years ago also by IBM, but only as a static picture. This is a logical extension I suppose, but it's nice to think that a large corporation is still willing to devote money to this kind of thing.
posted by Pazzovizza at 4:30 AM on May 2, 2013