These crazy photographs give “small” a whole new meaning.

What is NanoTechnology?

To break it down into 'nanos', nano technology is essentially engineering on a very VERY small scale. Nanotechnology encompasses everything from computing to medicine and helps give us a better understanding of the world on an atomic level.

Nanotechnology is the future of technology in general. It is the evolution of miniturization which has allowed us to take tolerances in machines to levels as low as one millionth of a meter, and progression in this technology will allow us to take these tolerances to the atomic level moving forward.

The scientists behind these photos are also artists, creating nanometre-wide sculptures that not only look awesome, but pave the way to a better understanding of medicine, computing, imaging, printing and chemicals, including the usage of parylene in nanotechnology.



Just how small is a nanometre? Well, there are a billion nanometres in one metre. Let me put it into perspective for you: If you shrunk yourself down to the height of a nanometer, a human would be about 1.5 million km tall. That’s three times longer than the distance from the Earth to the Moon!

World's Tiniest Toilet

Magnification: 15,000X



This nano toilet is less than a nanometer wide! Taken by Takahashi Kaito, this photo won the “Most Bizarre” micrograph award at the 49th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication. Yes, that’s a real contest. And yes, it is awesome.

USS Enterprise

Magnification: 5,000X



This 1-billionth scale model of the USS Enterprise measures just 8800 nanometers (less than one-tenth of a human hair). It was created by Takayuki Hoshino and Shinji Matsui of the Himeji, Institute of Technology, in case you want to call them up and commission your own model to bring to the next Star Trek conference.

Artificial Bacterial Nanophage

Magnification: 25,000X



This artifical nano “T4 Bacteriophage” is about 10 times as large as the real virus that affects bacteria. It’s made of diamond-like carbon and was constructed by Reo Kometani & Shinji Matsui from the University of Hyogo.

Chessboard

Magnification: 5,000X



This one’s pretty self explantory, but the official description provided by the creators, A. Linden and S. Bauerdick, is: “Our nano manipulators Kasparov and Karpov are desperately waiting for the kings…”

Guitar

Magnification: 16,500X

Dustin Carr from Cornell University created this teeny tiny guitar with strings made of crystal silicon.

Watering the Lawn

Magnification: 12,000X



I have no idea how well carbon nanotube grass grows, but the little guy is doing his best regardless (created by Michael Häffner).

Hand

Magnification: 50,970X



This guiding hand was grown by 5kV EBID (electron beam-induced deposition), which allows scientists to produce free-standing 3D sculptures with high spacial accuracy. It was created by Mihail Croitoru from Tübingen University.

Wave

Magnification: 40,000X



Created by Frans Holthuvsen, the official description of this is “bad adhesion of metallization.” I call it a wave.