International. A Boy and his atom is the name of the smallest frame-by-frame animated film ever made by IBM scientists.
What does it consist of? It is a one-minute video in which individual carbon monoxide molecules are rearranged several times. In this way the effect of a child playing with a ball, jumping on a trampoline and dancing is achieved.
According to information released by IBM, the size of each frame is 45 by 25 nanometers. If it is taken into account that one nanometer is equivalent to one billionth of a meter, the magnification of the image to be able to identify the child and his activities an intense work.
IBM required a tunneling scanning microscope to make the film. This microscope, which weighs two tons, magnifies the surface 100 million times and operates at 268 degrees Celsius below zero, thus allowing the manipulation of atoms, because under normal conditions of temperature they would have been unmanageable.
Although this is not the first time that a video based on moving atoms has been made. But, the researchers said, it's the first time atoms of this size have been used to tell a story. This was certified by Guinness World Records, which recognized it as the world's smallest frame-by-frame animated film.
One of the researchers said that the main motivation they had to make this film was to invite students to be creative, to ask questions, to look beyond.
