Now playing in a theater near you: IBM creates world’s smallest movie

That’s right, the world’s smallest movie consisting of atoms was filmed by IBM researchers.

 
Movie poster for “A Boy and His Atom.” (Image via IBM)

Atoms are the smallest complete part of any element in the universe. Last year, IBM announced the construction of the world’s smallest magnetic memory bit that was made of just 12 atoms. Usually, it requires about one million atoms to store a bit of data on an electronic device. This major advancement is so important because it now paves the way for devices that have never-before-seen data storage capacities.
 
In honor of their groundbreaking technology, IBM scientists decided to create a movie using atoms as actors. The movie, “A Boy and His Atom,” has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s smallest stop-motion film.

“At IBM, researchers don’t just read about science, we do it. This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world while opening up a dialogue with students and others on the new frontiers of math and science,” said Andreas Heinrich, lead investigator at IBM Research.

A frame from the movie. (Image via IBM) 

Setting up the movie set

To create the ideal movie set, scientists employed two IBM-invented scanning tunneling microscopes (STM), copper plates, and carbon monoxide.

An STM uses magnetism to drag atoms across a surface. In this case, the surface was made of copper 111 (the same material used in the first computer that performed digital computation operations).

Researchers used a standard computer to manipulate the microscope’s needle and move it along the copper surface enabling it to “feel” for atoms.  The needle is situated just one nanometer away from the surface and can physically attract atoms and molecules. The needles pull them to a desired location. The atom even makes a sound when it is moved which helps researchers to determine how many positions have actually been moved.

Behind the scenes researchers create the world's smallest movie. (Image via IBM)

Watch “A Boy and His Atom” below. The short film is about a boy named Atom who befriends an atom. Together they embark on a journey filled with dancing, playing catch, and bouncing on a trampoline.

Some quick facts about the movie:

• The boy in the video is made of carbon monoxide molecules.
• The images in the STM are magnified about 100 million times.
• The movie consists of 242 single frames.
• There are about 5 million atoms in the period at the end of this sentence.

Learn more about the movie production on IBM’s website.