World’s Smallest Periodic Table Engraved Onto a Human Hair (Video)

Poliakoff Explains How His Special Birthday Present Is Created

The world’s smallest version of a periodic table is seen being carved onto a strand of Dr. Martyn Poliakoff’s hair, Professor of Chemistry at the UK’s University of Nottingham.

Scientists at the Nottingham Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Center used an electron ion beam microscope to carry out this unprecedented nano-drawing as a special birthday present for Poliakoff.

The lucky recipient explains in the video that high-speed gallium ions are irradiated onto the hair, knocking out tiny flakes from its surface to carve out the pattern.

The table is 89.67 microns long and 46.39 microns high.

“Each element or each symbol is 4 microns across,” says Poliakoff in the video.

At 2:23, we see the electron microscope’s inbuilt camera zooming in to the nanometer scale to highlight the perfectly etched, world’s smallest periodic table.

“This is by far the smallest periodic table I have ever seen. Obviously it’s the best, because it’s on my hair!” Poliakoff jokes.

The periodic table was recognized as the smallest in the world by the 2012 Guinness Book of Records.