Scientists Create World's Smallest "Snowman"

Scientists have created the world’s smallest 'snowman', measuring about a fifth of the width of a human hair.

However, far from the thrill of rolling balls of snow around a field to build their masterpiece, it was assembled using tools designed for manipulating nanoparticles.

The snowman is made of two tiny tin beads, normally used to calibrate electron microscope lenses, which were welded together with platinum.

A focused ion beam was used to carve the snowman's eyes and smile, and to deposit a tiny blob of platinum for the nose

It was put together by Dr David Cox, a member of the Quantum Detection group at the laboratory, who also took the picture.