Dances with atoms: IBM researchers create a short film using only microscopic particles

A group of IBM researchers took a break from studying atomic data storage to work on something a bit more lighthearted: a stop motion movie made entirely out of atoms. The film, aptly named A Boy and His Atom, was created by arranging atoms with a scanning tunneling microscope and then capturing the arrangement as an image, magnified to over 100 million times its actual size. The final result is a brief 242 frames that show a charming story of a boy dancing and playing with an atom. Before its d...