Friday, April 13, 2007

Just Don't Sneeze!

The Vancouver Sun reports that physicists at Simon Fraser University have created the "world's smallest book" (a fleeting distinction, probably): their Teeny Ted from Turnip Town (by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin) measures just .07 mm x .1 mm (the paper notes, for comparison, that the head of a pin is about 2 mm x 2mm). The 'book' consists of "thirty carved tablets linked side by side," and requires an electron microscope to be read. The team plans to make 100 copies if they can get orders for them, to be sold at $20,000 a pop (or speck).

Asked who she thought would be the market for this book, physicist Karen Kavanaugh said "It's some type of feat, so maybe libraries would be interested in having one. And maybe some book collectors. Because getting access to an electron microscope isn't impossible. There's one at SFU people could use."

I'll stick with the books I can read, I think ... or at least those I can't accidentally inhale.

[h/t Shelf:Life]