World’s Smallest Radio Is Way Thinner Than a Human Hair

Is that iPod Nano starting to feel a little bulky? No worries. Scientists have now created a radio made from a single carbon nanotube—a rolled up sheet of carbon atoms—that’s one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. Two of the devices could fit into a common cold virus. The single tube performs all the necessary radio functions, and it’s tunable to your favorite FM station—if you have access to an electron microscope and some very teensy scissors.

This image taken through a transmission-electron microscope shows a single carbon nanotube protruding from an electrode. The red waves around the tip were added for visual effect.

(Courtesy of Zettl Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley)

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