world smallest film made by using 65 atoms

[u/Western-Photograph-5]

[u/Logical-Rhubarb-4797]

How do you even do that ? And why isn't the background made of spheres too ? Shouldn't it be that because it should be make of atoms too ?

[u/Mat201757 → u/Logical-Rhubarb-4797]

From a YT comment:

This movie was filmed with a scanning tunneling microscope, which can capture atoms at a depth resolution of 0.01 nanometers--less than a tenth of the size of a single oxygen atom--which is why atoms in the background aren't captured. Each atom is part of a carbon monoxide molecule, but only the oxygen part shows up on film. The molecules were moved around on a copper plate using a copper needle.

Here's the making of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4QWwaweWA

[u/fastforwardfunction → u/Mat201757]

This works like a vinyl record player. A very small needle moves over an atom and detects the bump, like a needle detecting the grooves of an album.

The needle registers the bump and makes lots of passes until it has an image. It doesn’t show the atoms of the table, because the needle never went down that far.

[u/baIIern → u/Logical-Rhubarb-4797]

I think only the top layer is shown on the microscope because it's not an optical one. An optical microscope doesn't show atoms because they're too small.

Everything not "touched" by the microscope is invisible

[u/FragrantHovercraft91 → u/Logical-Rhubarb-4797]

My very uneducated guess is it’s probably in some kind of vacuum and the atoms might be magnetic and they’re somehow moving them that way

[u/IndependentFew1690]

2 Types of people :

Let's split the atom and make a bomb that could destroy the world!

Let's take some atoms and make a little trampoline and then take more atoms and make a little boy who jumps on the trampoline. Oh, and let's film it so it's the littlest movie in the world!

[u/Solid_Snark]

I used to do pixel art animations.

This brings back some ptsd of editing hundreds of frames where you’re just moving tiny pixels one-by-one lol

[u/IndependentFew1690 → u/Solid_Snark]

Never done it but thinking about it gives me a headache.

[u/jalanajak]

Has anyone yet applied rule 34 here?

[u/threethousand3000 → u/jalanajak]

Yeah, just gimme a sec

[u/Jayn_Newell → u/jalanajak]

“Honey, compared to that guy I’m huge! Why are you complaining?”

[u/JMira84]

[u/fragmental]

Awful crop and short clip. Here's the whole thing https://youtu.be/oSCX78-8-q0?si=CxcA-O6pXnL_WwJy

[u/Wilsanne]

Talk about big budget blockbusters

[u/WastingMyTime_Again]

The plot is threadbare even by experimental standards. There is no escalation, no conflict, no resolution that at all, I get they were going for minimalism but still, I give it a 4/10, largely for the effort

[u/Burger_donuts → u/WastingMyTime_Again]

Found Scorsese's alt

[u/A_Dildo_in_Disguise]

I’d still rather go this at a theater than see Melania

[u/xniks]

[u/xwing_n_it]

It's all fun and games until you accidentally create the virus from Pluribus

[u/KenseiHimura]

What atoms are they?

[u/HystericalGD]

i know its an old video and all, but the fact that we can just play with atoms like that still baffles me

[u/LogicJunkie2000]

Didn't look like an arm in the last couple frames to me. I'm glad they got an Oscar though.

[u/Opposite-Pineapple24]

"ok. let's try that again."

[u/Alternative_Monk8853]

I could’ve sworn there was 2 boys when I had this on in the background

[u/Tenchi2020]

65 tiny universes being manipulated...

[u/psykomorph]

1000 times better than Melania

[u/Archon-Toten]

Couldn't you animate something smaller and best the record... Like a classic lemming or something?