Scientists at Loughborough University create 'world's smallest violin'
If you have a complaint over your timetables or exams, Loughborough University may not be the place to air it.For physicists at the university believe they have created the world's smallest violin using nanotechnology.They say work on the tiny instrument, which is smaller than the width of a human hair, will help with research into an array of applications from improving the efficiency of computers to finding new ways of harvesting energy.Prof Kelly Morrison, head of the university's physics department, said: "A lot of what we've learned in the process has actually laid the groundwork for the research we're now undertaking."
The violin measures 35 microns long and 13 microns wide, with a micron being one millionth of a metre. A human hair typically ranges from 17 to 180 microns in diameter, for comparison.It was created to test the capabilities of the university's new nanolithography system, which allows researchers to build and study tiny structures."Our nanolithography system allows us to design experiments that probe materials in different ways – using light, magnetism, or electricity – and observe their responses," Prof Morrison said."Once we understand how materials behave, we can start applying that knowledge to develop new technologies, whether it's improving computing efficiency or finding new ways to harvest energy."But first, we need to understand the fundamental science and this system enables us to do just that."
The phrase "can you hear the world's smallest violin playing just for you?" is thought to have first appeared on an episode of TV show M*A*S*H in 1978, and usually mocks overly dramatic complaints.The violin is a microscopic image rather than a playable instrument and has not been officially confirmed as the world's smallest violin, the university said.To create it, Prof Morrison was joined by Dr Naëmi Leo and research technician Dr Arthur Coveney.A small chip was coated with two layers of gel-like material called a resist, before it was placed under the NanoFrazor, a nano-sculpting machine.The machine uses thermal scanning probe lithography, a technique where a heated, needle-like tip "writes" highly precise patterns at the nanoscale.This allowed the violin design to be etched on to the chip's surface layer.
After it was etched, the underlayer of the resist was dissolved to leave behind a violin-shaped hole.The university said a thin layer of platinum was then deposited into the chip before a final rinse in acetone removed any remaining material to leave the finished violin.It takes around three hours to create a violin using the nanolithography system, but the research team's final version took several months as they refined and tested different techniques."I'm really excited about the level of control and possibilities we have with the set-up," Prof Morrison added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
‘Poop transplants' have been happening for decades. Now researchers have identified some unintended consequences
Fecal microbiota transplants are common medical procedures dating back decades that can help restore the gut health of people with colon infections - but scientists now warn of newly discovered consequences from the procedure. The 'poop transplant' is the transfer of the stool of a healthy donor to a recipient. The stool contains beneficial bacteria that can improve the patient's gut bacteria, which guards immune health and helps to regulate metabolism. They are approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat people with common C. diff infections that may cause severe gastrointestinal symptoms and inflammation in hospital patients who have been on antibiotics. Roughly 48,000 procedures are done each year. Now, University of Chicago researchers say a study in mice and experiments with human tissue have revealed some long-lasting and unintended consequences due to transplanting microorganisms from only one section of the digestive tract. 'I think it's a bit of a wakeup call to the field that maybe we shouldn't willy-nilly put large bowel microbes into different parts of the intestine that shouldn't be there,' Dr. Orlando 'Landon' DeLeon, postdoctoral researcher at the university, said in a statement. 'If we're designing good therapeutics, we should be aware of the importance of matching the regional microbiota to their proper environments, so that we provide better overall health benefits.' DeLeon is the lead author of the new research, which was published on Friday in the journal Cell. To reach these conclusions, the authors gave three groups of mice transplants of microorganisms from the middle part of the small intestine that connects to the colon, and a standard fecal transplant from the colon. The test showed that the microorganisms from each transplant were able to colonize the entirety of the intestinal tract in the mice -- not just certain regions. This created what they called regional gut mismatches, lasting for up to three months following a transplant. The microbes also altered their new intestinal environments, 'terraforming' the lining in ways that caused changes in the recipient's metabolism, behavior and energy balance. There were shifts in liver metabolism, including activity in genes associated with immune function. The mice also exhibited different eating behaviors. The gut has several distinct regions with vastly different microbial ecosystems. Imbalances in gut bacteria have been tied to a risk of cancer. 'There are microbes along the entire intestinal tract, and we just study predominately the last third of it (the colon),' DeLeon said. 'So, how can you expect [a transplant], with microbes from a third of the intestinal tract at the end of it, to fix the rest of the intestine?' What this means for human patients may be murky right now, but the authors say more caution is needed with the transplants going forward. They advocate for an approach that would transfer microorganism from all regions of the intestine and not just largely from the colon. In the future, they plan to conduct further study related to how different microbes exert their influence in different parts of the intestine and how the gut regions terraformed by microbiota mismatches can be restored. 'We have absolutely no idea what's in FMT, except that it's a combination of microbes,' Dr. Eugene Chang, the Martin Boyer Professor of Medicine at the university and senior author of the study, said. 'But even a single FMT will cause a change in the host-microbe relationships in these very different regions of the bowel that may be very difficult to reverse.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Hidden 'fingerprints' found in the Bible after thousands of years rewrite the story of the Ark of the Covenant
Scientists have uncovered hidden patterns in the Bible that challenge ancient beliefs about its origins. Using artificial intelligence, they discovered 'fingerprints' in text throughout the Old Testament, suggesting multiple people wrote the stories. The traditional Jewish and Christian understanding is that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, including stories about creation, Noah's flood and the Ark of the Covenant. The new study found three distinct writing styles with distinct vocabulary, tone and focus areas, suggesting multiple authors and sources contributed to the books over time. Researchers used AI analyzed for 50 chapters across five books, uncovering inconsistencies in language and content, repeated stories, shifts in tone and internal contradictions. The theory that scripture had multiple authors was first proposed more than 200 years ago, but was dismissed due to religions debate, lack of technology and nuances of biblical text. Thomas Römer, a biblical expert from the Collège de France and co-author of the study, told The Times of Israel: 'There are no authors of the Bible in the modern sense. 'The original versions of the scrolls were continuously reworked and rewritten by redactors who added, altered, and sometimes also omitted parts of the former texts.' The traditional Jewish and Christian understanding is that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament. However, the new study has found evidence suggesting that multiple people may have contributed to these texts. While the Bible portrays Moses as a key historical figure, most scholars today view him as a legendary figure, or at least a composite character, rather than a literal historical person. The Old Testament was written over a period of approximately 1000 years, starting roughly around 1400 BC and ending around 400 BC. It is comprised of 39 books, focusing around God's covenant with humanity, His relationship with the Israelites, and the promise of a Messiah who would bring salvation and redemption. In several books, Moses is attributed to writing some passages. Exodus 24:4 reads: 'Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord' A similar passage is found in Deuteronomy 31:9 that states: 'Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests...' For thousands of years, Jewish and Christian traditions held Moses to be the author because he is the central figure in the books and was seen as a prophet, lawgiver and leader capable of writing such texts. But the new study could change this long-held history. The AI examined patterns in word usage, word frequency, phrases and sentences structures as these are subtle linguistic 'fingerprints' that can reflect different authors or schools of scribes. Beyond confirming the styles, the team extended their AI method to study nine other biblical sections with disputed authorship. These included well-known stories such as the creation narrative, Noah's flood and the Ark of the Covenant accounts. According to the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant was built by the Israelites shortly after they fled Egypt around the 13th century BC. Moses then placed the Ten Commandments inside. The AI algorithm compared these chapters' word usage to the three known styles, revealing new affiliations and helping clarify long-standing scholarly debates. Researchers said this new technique could revolutionize the study of ancient texts, helping to solve other authorship mysteries beyond the Bible, such as texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls or historical documents where authorship is uncertain. The three writing styles were first found when Biblical scholars noticed certain sections of the Old Testament had different vocabulary, themes and ways of writing. The first style, known as the Deuteronomic (D) corpus, focuses on laws, obedience, and clear commands. The second, the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH), narrates Israel's history, emphasizing moral lessons based on faithfulness, and the Priestly (P) style highlights rituals, priesthood and sacred spaces with formal and detailed language. Thomas Römer, a biblical expert from the Collège de France and co-author of the study, told The Times of Israel: 'Deuteronomy refers to the last book of the Torah/Pentateuch. 'There is a wide consensus that the first version of this scroll was written down in the 7th century BCE. The core of this first version was the laws that stipulate that the God of Israel had chosen only one place [Jerusalem] for the sacrificial cult.' He explained that Deuteronomistic History was also re-worked several times. And the Priestly Writings include several texts in Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. 'These texts were written for the first time around 520 BCE in the context of the reconstruction of the Second Temple,' Römer said. 'The priestly authors and redactors want to show the importance of rituals and the different types of sacrifices.'
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Scientists create the 'world's smallest violin'
A team of scientists have created the 'world's smallest violin' - which is tinier than a speck of dust and needs a microscope to see it!The micro-violin was created using nanotechnology by a team at Loughborough measures 35 microns long and 13 microns wide - a micron is one millionth of a metre - for comparison a human hair is around 17 to 180 microns the tiny violin is just an image and not a playable instrument, so it cannot be officially confirmed as the world's smallest violin, the university said. The tiny violin was created to test the abilities of the university's new nanolithography system, which allows researchers to build and study tiny structures."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," said Professor Kelly Morrison, Head of the Physics department at Loughborough University."Our nanolithography system allows us to design experiments that probe materials in different ways – using light, magnetism, or electricity – and observe their responses."Once we understand how materials behave, we can start applying that knowledge to develop new technologies, whether it's improving computing efficiency or finding new ways to harvest energy," she said. How did they make it? To create the violin the researchers coated a tiny chip with two layers of gel-like material called a resist, before placing it under a nano-sculpting the machine uses a heated, needle-like tip to "write" very precise patterns on the nanoscale - in this case a violin shape - in a process called thermal scanning probe that a thin layer of platinum was poured into the carved out pattern to leave behind the finished whole process takes around three hours, but the research team's final version took several months to make, as they tested different techniques to get the best result.
