The world's tiniest guitar

New York Times Upfront, Jan 12, 2004

Cornell University physicists recently used a laser beam to pluck the strings of an invisibly tiny silicon guitar just 10 millionths of a meter long. Each string of the instrument is about 50 nanometers [billionths of a meter] wide--only 100 atoms thick. The experiment in nanotechnology--manipulating objects on an atomic level to build devices--is an attempt to revolutionize manufacturing and medicine with machines as tiny as atoms.

Scientists have recently created infinitesimal scales capable of weighing a single virus. Eventually doctors may use nanocapsules to carry medicines, a few molecules at a time, to precise locations in the body, and nanorobots to crawl through the bloodstream and repair cells.