Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
The world’s smallest house is built on a foundation that's 300 micrometers by 300 micrometers – about half the size of an average grain of sand!
It comes with all the expected features though: four walls, seven windows and a chimney.
It was crafted by nano-robotics researchers at Femto-ST Institute, in Besançon, France, and was made using a layer of silica set on the tip of an optical fibre. The house was built inside the scanning electron microscope's vacuum chamber – with a technique similar to the art of origami.
That fibre that was used is less than the width of a human hair, and in order create the house, researchers used a platform called uRobotex.
It is hoped that the team can use this technology in the future to insert such fibres into blood vessels.
The dwelling was recently revealed in a paper published in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A.
The focused ion beam is used like scissors to cut or score the silica membrane ‘paper’ of the house. Once the walls fold into position, a lower power setting is selected on the ion gun, and the gas injection system sticks the edges of the structure into place. The low-power ion beam and gas injection then gently sputters a tiled pattern on the roof, a detail that emphasises the accuracy and flexibility of the system.The American Institute of Physics
(With inputs from AP)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)