Every breed of art deserves at least a short moment in the limelight. Microsculpting, however, deserves quite a bit more. Taking up to six weeks on a single piece, microsculpter Willard Wigan creates miniature versions of pop culture icons that must be viewed from a microscope. Wired Magazine shares this incredible story:
“I’m like a mad professor, but without the spiky hair,” laughs Wigan, 52, who spends about six weeks on each piece. “I get down to 6, 7 microns, which is one-third the size of a period you’d see in a newspaper.”
“I cut the joints of this nylon fiber and moved the arm toward its head, but as I bend it, the arm keeps wanting to spring back,” he says, describing the delicate process. “I’m making little grooves, and as I’m cutting, the body starts to bend and twist and by then, perspiration starts dripping off my finger down the tool and toward the sculpture, like a little tidal wave of sweat coming down.”
It’s been a while since Neatorama’s last co-blogging post, so it was a pleasant surprise when Hanan of the always neat grow-a-brain blog suggested that we do another one, with the topic of: the world’s smallest.
Also check out the very first co-blogging Neatorama ever did (also with grow-a-brain): Crime and Punishment. Thanks Hanan!
World’s Smallest Teddy Bears The world’s smallest teddy bears, 3.5-mm tall Micro Ted and 5-mm tall Mini-the-Pooh, were made by German sculptor Bettina Kaminski.
To make these tiny beauties, she had to weave the thread, stitch the bears’ bodies, arms, and legs, turn them inside out, stuff them, and then stitch them all together before embroidering the details!
World’s Smallest Baby to Survive Rumaisa, the world’s smallest baby to survive weighed only 244 grams (8.6 ounces) – less than a can of soda – when she was delivered by caesarean section after just 26 weeks of pregnancy.
World’s Smallest & Most Wondrous Works of Art Willard Wigan’s sculptures are so small they can rest on the head of a pin or in the eye of a needle, like his Statue of Liberty sculpture to the left.
Wigan [wiki] uses rice and grains of sand and sugar for his sculptures. His artwork are so small that he has to work between heartbeats to avoid hand tremors!
World’s Smallest Violin Eric Meissner made not just one, but two of the world’s smallest functional violins (the smallest one is 1 5/8" or 4.1 cm long).
World’s Smallest Fish Scientists discovered this Paedocypris progenetica fish in forest swamps on the Indonesian island of Sumatera. The fish is only 7.9 mm long (about 1/3 inch long)!
The title, however, is contested: two other fish, the 7 mm long male stout infantfish (Schindleria brevipinguis) and the 6.2 mm long male anglerfish (Photocorynus spiniceps) said that they should’ve been the world’s smallest fish.
World’s Smallest Brewery The Bragdy Gwynant brewery is less than 5 square feet and was once an outhouse. It is now the world’s smallest commercial brewery: it brews beer for its one and only customer, the Tynllidiart Arms next door!
World’s Smallest Living Organism Biologists Jill Banfield and Brett Baker discovered what could be the world’s smallest living thing, the enigmatic Archaea microbes found in a slime pool in a deep underground mine:
Once Baker had found gene segments (ribosomal RNA) from three Archaea, he was able to fish the microbes out of the slime soup and found that they were extremely small, around 200 nanometers in diameter, the size of large viruses. Bacteria average about five times this diameter.
World’s Smallest Cat Meet Mr. Peebles, who at 6.1 (15.5 cm) in high and 19.2 in (49 cm) long, is the world’s smallest cat.
The cute cat fits perfectly in a regular 8 oz glass!
World’s Smallest Dog
Photo: Dominic Chavez / The Boston Globe
OK, so how about the world’s smallest dog? Meet Ducky from Charlton, Massachusetts, the who holds the current title of the world’s smallest dog. He’s just 1.4 pound and 4.9 inches tall!
World’s Smallest Cattle
The world’s smallest cattle is a rare breed of an Indian zebu called the Vechur cow. The average height of this breed of cattle is 31 to 35 inches (81 to 91 cm). The photo above shows a 16 year old Vechur cattle as compared to a 6 year old HF cross-breed cow.
World’s Smallest Flowering Plant and Seed It makes sense that the world’s smallest flowering plant also produces the world’s smallest seeds: both records belong to Wolffia or the flowering duckweed.
The fruit of Wolffia augusta is about 0.2 mm (1/100th on an inch) long and weighs about 70 microgram – it is smaller than a single grain of salt!
World’s Smallest Distance Unit At 0.000000000000000000000000000000000016 m, (1.6x 10^-35 m), Planck length is the smallest distance unit in physics.
But why is it important? Turns out, it is a physical unit of measurement that can be defined exclusively in terms of five universal physical constants (often referred to by physicists as "God’s units").
At this scale, it is thought that gravity and space-time cease to exist and quantum effects dominate.
World’s Smallest Movie Theater The world’s smallest public movie theater is this 770 square feet (72 m²) Cinema dei Piccoli [website in Italian] in Villa Borghese, Rome, Italy. It has 63 seats and has been in operation for over 70 years!
World’s Smallest Guitar Dustin Carr and Harold Craighead of Cornell University’s Nanofabrication Facility created the Nano-guitar – it’s only 10 micrometers long (about the size of a single cell). The guitar strings are each about 50 nanometers or 100 atoms wide!
World’s Smallest Horse At just 60 lb and 17-inch tall, the five-year-old Thumbelina is the world’s smallest horse!
The little horse was born to Paul and Kay Goessling, who specialize in breeding miniature horses, but even for the breed Thumbelina is particularly small: she is thought to be a dwarf-version of the breed!
But apparently her small size didn’t hamper her attitude:
But despite this massive difference in size, it is feisty Thumbelina who rules the roost over the stallions and racehorses on her 150-acre farm. (Source: Daily Mail)
World’s Smallest Car The world’s smallest car, a true "nano" vehicle, is just 4 nanometers across – that’s less than 1/10,000 the width of a strand of human hair!
The wheels are made from buckyballs at 60 atoms apiece. The "car" has a chassis, axles, and even a pivoting suspension!
World’s Smallest Linux Computer The Picotux 100 is only slightly larger than an RJ45 connector!
World’s Smallest Church Roadside America found the world’s smallest church: the Cross Island chapel, which has this interesting story:
Cross Island Chapel, "The World’s Smallest Church," sits on a wooden platform in the center of a pond. A billboard near the road details everything you need to know: "Built in 1989. Floor area 51 inches by 81 inches (28.68 square feet). Seats two people. Non-denominational. Dedicated as a witness to God." Years ago we read a newspaper account of a wedding held at Cross Island Chapel, with only room to accommodate the minister, bride and groom. The rest of the wedding partyanchored nearby in small boats. Guests on shore imagined how the vows went.
It’s open to the public on request, and accessible only by boat.
World’s Smallest Toilet
Chisai Benjo by Takahashi Kaito (SII Nanotechnology Inc.)
And finally, world’s smallest toilet, winner of Most Bizarre (how appropriate) micrograph contest.
Yep. That would be the Statue of Liberty in the eye of a needle. Follow the link to see more of these astonishing sculptures by Willard Wigan. H/t Rob B
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