Friday, April 13, 2007

Teeny Ted

Canadian researchers say they have produced the world's smallest published book, a story of a turnip contest that will require readers to use an electron microscope.

The book, entitled Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, measures 0.07 mm by 0.10 mm and was made using a focused gallium-ion beam to carve out spaces around each letter on pieces of crystalline silicon, according to Simon Fraser University.

That is smaller than the head of a pin, which is about 2 mm in size, according to the researchers.

The book is tinier than two cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's smallest, a copy of the New Testament of the King James Bible, made in 2001, and a 2002 production of Anton Chekhov's "Chameleon", the researchers said.

Each of the "nanobooks" is made up of 30 microtablets. The story is described by the Vancouver university as a "fable about Teeny Ted's victory in a turnip contest at the annual country fair."

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