Scientists create world’s smallest record that can barely be seen by human eye

Scientists in Denmark have created the world’s smallest vinyl record – check out a video of it below.

The record, which measures just 15 by 15 micrometres and has a depth of just 65 nanometres, is so small that it can barely be seen by the human eye.

The tiny record plays 25 seconds of ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ as per EDM.

In a YouTube video demonstrating the process, scientist Nolan Lassaline from the Technical University of Denmark said that the record was “so small that the entire thing we’re patterning can fit within one single groove of a regular vinyl record”.

Check out the video here:

Professor Peter Nøggild added that “while this record is of course a little bit of Christmas fun, it’s also a very serious exercise for something that is important to our research,” explaining that the technology being developed here could be crucial for other areas of science.

He continued: “While we make these kinds of grooves here with nanometre precision, we can transfer these to a number of other materials, where that will fundamentally allow us to manipulate material properties on a nanoscale,” he continued.

“We are doing something that we have never really been able to do in physics and material science before now.

“Another thing that also we would use this for is to make tiny magnetic field sensors that allows us to measure the currents in the brain, and for that we are hoping in the long term to create some affordable technology that would allow us to answer questions pertaining to Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s.”

Meanwhile, vinyl has outsold CD for first time in 35 years, according to figures released by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).

Overall music sales increased by three per cent in 2022 to almost £2billion, which is the highest figure since 2003 and nearly double the level of their low point in 2013.

According to the published figures, physical sales did fall slightly by 3.8 per cent to £280.4million, but levelled out as the vinyl format showed sustained growth while CD sales declined.

Vinyl album sales grew 11 per cent to £150.5million, while CD album sales, in contrast, fell 17.4 per cent to £124million – the first time vinyl outsold CD by value since 1987.

“We are approaching a watershed,” ERA CEO Kim Bayley said in a statement. “Thanks to the investment and ingenuity of streaming services on the one hand and to the physical retailers who have driven the vinyl revival on the other, music is within sight of exceeding £2bn in retail sales value for the first time in more than two decades.

“Music has to be great to win people’s attention, but it’s the buying and consumption experience which ultimately persuades people to put their hands in their pockets.”

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