It turns making a mountain out of a molehill on its head, to say the least. IBM researchers have sculpted a 1:180 billion scale model of the Matterhorn, the 4478-metre-tall Alpine peak on the Swiss-Italian border.
The team carved the minute mountain using a technique they have developed for making high-density computer storage. This wasn't art for art's sake, however: their aim was to demonstrate how their nanosculpting method can be used for other applications. One could be to shape tiny lenses on silicon chips that would carry optical rather than electronic circuits.
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