The world's tiniest guitar.

• Position: Circuits

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...