June 6 (UPI) -- A team of physicists from a British university used nanotechnology to create what they dubbed "the world's smallest violin," an instrument that can't be seen without a microscope.
The Loughborough University team said the platinum violin measures 35 microns -- a measurement unit equal to one millionth of a meter -- long, and 13 microns wide.
The violin is smaller than the diameter of a human hair, which ranges from 17 to 180 microns. Tardigrades, eight-legged micro animals, measure between 50 to 1,200 microns long.
The researchers created the minute musical instrument to demonstrate the abilities of their new nanolithography system, technology that allows scientists to build and study nanoscale objects and structures.
The instrument was chosen as a play on the phrase, "Can you hear the world's smallest violin playing just for you?" The phrase is an expression of mock pity in response to exaggerated complaints or overly dramatic reactions.
"Though creating the world's smallest violin may seem like fun and games, a lot of what we've learned in the process has actually laid the groundwork for the research we're now undertaking," Professor Kelly Morrison, head of Loughborough University's Physics Department, said in a news release.
