The pic is quite cool (need to a driver for me scanner), but the rest goes straight over my head,lol

While my nanoguitar gently heats……

Even Hendrix would have struggled with this guitar. It was etched out of a silicon wafer by researchers at Cornell University in NY and its little more than 30 micrometeres long. This isn’t the first or smallest nanoguitar – the group made one in the shape of a Fender Stratocaster back in 1997 – but it’s the first to be played.

Lidija Sekaric and her colleagues found a way to turn an ordinary laser into a nanoplectrum. They use interference to modulate the laser light so that it heats the strings intermittently. This makes them bend back and forth, producing notes at around 40 megahertz.

The group developed the technique to drive other microelectromechanical devices, or MEMs. Earlier methods only worked well in a vacuum, but this one works in air, so it could be used to sniff out drugs or explosives or to weigh bacteria. The guitar tho was made for fun – and publicity.

The researchers can even listen to the guitar, by detecting light refected from it, analysing the signal and transposing it down octaves. “We played the bugle call from amazing grace,” says Sekaric “It sounded like a wind instrument – quite pure tones”

Taken from The new scientist 8th nov, no.2420

Hey butter, fantastic story! I just hope the boffins tire of trying to learn Stairway to Heaven, and use this to cure the ills of the world!

Here's the Fender...





2 microns is two thousandths (sp?) of a millimeter, which is about the width of a bacterium!



Here's the playable little beauty...



According to the site from where this picture is found, the guitar 'twangs' at a frequency of 40MHz, which is apparently 17 octaves higher than your standard sized six-string!!!

Oh, and 10 microns...that's about as wide as FIVE bacteria!

Ty maggot the bottom pic is the one I've got u've explained it better than new scientist too, lmao

This is the coolest thing ever posted in the musicians' forum.