Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/01/ibm_atom_boy/
Atoms star in ball-bothering boffins' Big Blue movie
Bantam blockbuster boy bewilders Reg bloke
Posted in Science, 1st May 2013 13:04 GMT
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Vid IBM Research has proved its worth by moving atoms across a screen to create the world's smallest movie. Big Blue has gone much better with its atomic animation A Boy and His Atom.
The movie has 242 frames and lasts just under 100 seconds; any more and it would rapidly become turgidly boring, in your humble hack's opinion. Each frame shows a picture made using little silvery balls, which are individual atoms placed into position by IBM's scanning tunnelling microscope [1] to depict a small boy in various attitudes.
They used this microscope to control a probe one nanometer away from the surface of what would become each movie frame, moving the atoms to their desired locations in each frame to make up a complete shot. Big Blue's researchers then took a picture of each frame, threading 242 of those pictures together to make up the complete movie.
IBM says its ball-prodding boffins used 10,000 atoms to make their miniscule movie, which we have embedded here for the delight and delectation of Reg readers:
In fairness to Big Blue, when all you have to work with are silvery balls set against a grey background, your options are somewhat limited.
IBM is almost winsome in its description of the movie's plot: "A Boy and His Atom 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. Set to a playful musical track, the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community."
Okay, but why bother?
Andreas Heinrich, a principal investigator at IBM Research in Almaden, has a canned bit of quotery for the masses: “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 others on the new frontiers of math and science."
IBM also blathers on about how atomic scale storage, with just 12 atoms [2] needed to reliably store one bit, could solve the world's data storage problems. At present, though, the equipment needed to write to these 12 atoms happens to be a 2-ton scanning tunnelling microscope operating at -268°C. Something usable might come from this boffinry - eventually.
View a five-minute video about making the Boy and His Atom movie here [3]. ®
Bootnotes
1. The Internet Movie Database has not yet decided whether to list this epoch-defining classic.
2. Tiny movie star Tom Cruise has yet to deny rumours that he'll play the lead in IBM's next atomic-scale flick, Mission Impossible 6: Molecular Man.
3. Feminist organisations are picketing Almaden and saying they want to see "A Girl and Her Atom", saying there shouldn't be any gender bias in atomic-scale IT.