Regular readers may recall a March 12, 2014 posting about an IBM nano chisel and a National Geographic Kids magazine cover contest. The winning cover was chosen by an online ‘crowd’,
Next, IBM used its nano chisel to create the world’s smallest magazine cover, which was announced at the USA Science & Engineering Festival held in Washington, D.C, April 26-27, 2014. From an April 26, 2014 news item on Azonano,National Geographic Kids today claimed its ninth GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® title for the Smallest Magazine Cover, using patented technology from IBM, at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C.
To create the record-setting cover, IBM scientists invented a tiny “chisel” with a heatable silicon tip 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil point. Using this nano-sized tip, which creates patterns and structures on a microscopic scale, it took scientists just 10 minutes and 40 seconds to etch the magazine cover onto a polymer, the same substance of which plastics are made. The resulting magazine cover measures 11 × 14 micrometers, which is so small that 2,000 could fit on a grain of salt.
For the curious, there are more technical details about the ‘nano chiseling’ process in either my posting or the Azonano news item.
As for the other eight GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® that National Geographic Kids has claimed (from the April 26, 2014 news item on Azonano,
National Geographic Kids’ eight previous GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles are: Longest Line of Footprints (10,932 prints measuring two miles, set in 2004); Largest Collection of Plush Toys (2,304 stuffed animals, set in 2006); Longest Chain of Shoes (10,512 shoes, set in 2008); Most Items of Clothing Collected for Recycling (33,088 items of denim clothing, set in 2009); Most People Doing Jumping Jacks in 24 Hours (300,265, set in 2011), Largest Collection of Shoes to Recycle (16,407, set in 2013); Most People Running 100 Meters in 24 hours (30,914, set in 2013); and Largest Online Photo Album (104,022 pictures, set in 2013).
Congratulations to National Geographic Kids! And, good luck selling your nano chisel, IBM.