The presidential candidates have been under a microscope for the last year, but today, the focus on Sen. Barack Obama's face reached the nanoscale.

Sculpted using nanolithography by University of Michigan mechanical engineer, John Hart, each Obama face is composed of 150 million carbon nanotubes and measures half a millimeter across.

"We can make pretty much any 2-D pattern by this technique," Hart said.

But in honor of the election, Hart's lab applied their technique to the now-ubiquitous image of Obama's face created by Shepherd Ferry.

The only overtly political text that accompanies the images on nanobama.com is the tagline, "vote for science."

When he and the rest of the nation don't have election fever, the focus of Hart's more serious research is finding ways to use nanomaterials to build useful electronics.

"The nanotubes themselves are perhaps the strongest molecule known to man, and also have fantastic electrical and thermal properties," Hart said. "However, effective methods of organizing large numbers of nanotubes are needed to realize many unique commercial applications."

Hart has created a flickr set with 20 more images of Obama's face for your liberal, nanoartistic pleasure.

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