Tis the season

Sometimes nanotechnology is used for good, sometimes just for silly.  Scientists in England have created the world's smallest snowman.  It follows along with the smallest book, musical instrument and even US flag.  The world's smallest snowman was made by sticking two beads together using a little bit of platinum which is used a lot in nanotechnology to bond other metals together.   Then they carved a pair of eyes and a mouth using an ion beam which is usually used to etch nanometer-sized holes and trenches into metals.  They put this snowman on a tiny cantilever that used to image very small objects.
There is a neat video shows you how big (or small) this little snowman really is.

A lot of people wonder how scientists can find the time to do stuff like making the world's smallest snowman.  Lots of times it is to demonstrate a new technology and why not make something that lots of folks might recognize.  It makes science a bit more human and it also makes the scientists a bit more human.  See scientists also have a sense of humor and making a little snowman at this time of the year is kind of funny.

Happy holidays.