IBM Creates The World's Smallest Movie

Bangalore: IBM Research Scientists on Wednesday unveiled the ‘world’s smallest movie’ made up of atoms. The movie tracks the movement of these tiny particles accurately placed to approximately create 250 frames of stop motion action.

Named as ‘The Boy and His Atom’, the movie conveys about science to the society in terms of data storage. According to IBM, this kind of science is required to improve computer data storage as tech firms resort to traditional methods.

The simple plot shows a character named Atom who makes friends with another atom and follows him on a journey of dancing and bouncing with playful music in the background.

According to IBM Research’s Principle Investigator Andreas Heinrich, “Capturing, positioning and shaping atoms to create an original motion picture on the atomic level is a precise science and entirely novel.” “At IBM, researchers don’t just read about science, we do it. This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world while opening up a dialogue with students and other on the new frontiers of math and science”, he adds.

In order to make the movie, researchers used their own invented tool, a Nobel Prize acclaimed scanning tunneling microscope to move the atoms. The microscope precisely moved and placed the atoms in their specified locations by controlling a super-sharp needle along a copper surface.

As IBM says, the Movie is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘World’s Smallest Stop Motion Film’.