Scientists print 'world's smallest violin' in platinum with nanolithography — UK physicists push toward nanoscale computing

The world's smallest violin, printed in platinum by Loughborough University.

Physicists at Loughborough University in the UK have printed the "world's smallest violin" using new nanolithography tools. The team behind the instrument, which is thinner than a human hair, chose the project as a reference to the timeless insult. More than just a SpongeBob reference, the instrument represents the future of nanoscale computing.

Using a process the Loughborough team compare to screen printing on a microscopic scale, the violin is a tiny 13 microns wide and 35 microns tall. This puts it thinner than human hair, and small enough that even the smallest tardigrades could not play it—a fact made slightly less relevant by the violin's inability to produce musical notes.