IBM makes world's smallest movie

IBM makes world's smallest movie by filming atoms

Scientists from IBM on Wednesday unveiled the world's smallest movie, made with one of the tiniest elements in the universe: atoms.

Named "A Boy and His Atom," the movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action. It depicts a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a playful journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline.

"Capturing, positioning and shaping atoms to create an original motion picture on the atomic-level is a precise science and entirely novel," said Andreas Heinrich, principle investigator for the research in a statement.

"This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world while opening up a dialogue with students and others on the new frontiers of math and science," Heinrich said.

IBM used a remotely operated scanning tunneling microscope to make the movie earlier this year. The microscope operates at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface over 100 million times.

Researchers used the microscope to control a super-sharp needle along a copper surface to "feel" atoms. Only 1 nanometer away from the surface, which is a billionth of a meter in distance, the needle can physically attract atoms and molecules on the surface and thus pull them to a precisely specified location on the surface.

In the end, the scientists rendered still images of the individually arranged atoms, resulting in 242 single frames.

ＩＢＭ用原子打造世界最"小"電影

新華網華盛頓５月１日電（記者林小春）又一個新"人"加入了電影行業,并一舉奪走"世界最小演員"稱號.美國國際商用機器公司（ＩＢＭ）１日宣布,該公司利用宇宙中的微小粒子——原子,塑造了一個男孩形象,制作了一部世界上最小的電影,并已獲得吉尼斯世界紀錄認證.

這部電影是動畫片,名為《男孩和他的原子》,描繪了一個男孩與原子一起跳舞和玩耍的情景,男孩的線條輪廓由一個個原子排列組成.由于這是一部原子尺度上的電影,ＩＢＭ所展現的電影畫面比實際尺度放大了一億多倍.

業內人士評價說,盡管這部電影時長不過９０秒,沒有豐富的情節,也不會逗人開心大笑,畫面顏色也單調,容易讓人想起幾十年前的動畫片,但其意義非凡.ＩＢＭ的研究人員說,希望依靠這種"有趣的方法來展示原子尺度的世界",并探索數據存儲的極限.

為制作這部電影,研究人員利用一個兩噸重的掃描隧道顯微鏡,在零下２６８攝氏度的環境下,控制微細針頭在銅的表面精確移動原子的位置,通過這種方式來組成每個定格影像,最終合成了一部２４２幀的電影.

ＩＢＭ在其官網上說,去年該公司研究人員曾用１２個原子制成世界最小的磁存儲器."然而,納米物理學家也需要找點樂趣.出于這種娛樂精神,他們通過掃描隧道顯微鏡移動原子制作出了一部電影,吉尼斯世界紀錄已認證它為世界最小電影."