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Canada is too-often the overlooked member of North America. But, as it turns out, they’re doing all sorts of interesting things up there. The University of Alberta’s National Institute of Nanotechnology recently made its way into the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the world’s sharpest manmade object. Measuring in at one tungsten atom, the specially-crafted tip used by the University’s electron microscope is the pointiest thing mankind has ever created in his 10,000-year history of forging pointy objects.

Not bad, Canucks!

The metal “lens” tip is specially designed as a transmitter of electron beams which can be used to to physically manipulate materials at the atomic scale. This special tip was first developed in 2006 and is created by building a pyramid of tungsten atoms that are covered in a “protective paint” of hydrogen atoms that stop the pyramid from blunting.

Once added to a conventional electron microscope, the new tip is like “taking a modest car and making it go like a race car by just changing its spark plugs,” according to lead researcher Dr. Robert Wokow. “We would take a conventional electron microscope, put in one of our tips as the electron source and render the microscope instantly improved and capable of finer resolution.”

The advancement of electron microscopy allows for advancement in a wide range of areas, from creating new nanomaterials and nanodevices to studying human biology at the most minute of scales.

via Nanowerk, ScienceDaily