To Boldly Go Where No Microbe Has Gone Before
From Trek Today:
In what certainly has to be the smallest scale ever for a science-fiction ship model, two scientists have constructed the USS Enterprise in a one-billionth scale. The scale model of the Enterprise is so tiny, that it can only be seen by an electron microscope.
?Scientists Takayuki Hoshino and Shinji Matsui of the Himeji Institute of Technology, located in Japan, used a focused ion beam to cut out the model, using a process called chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
The CVD process used phenanthrene gas to etch the tiny 8.8 micrometer USS Enterprise
Fun fact: If you thought anything even slightly like “Sure it’s a 1:1,000,000,000-scale, but it’s kind of a shitty 1:1,000,000,000-scale Enterprise” upon seeing this, you are a huge, huge nerd. Thanks to everyone who sent me the tip.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.