In the recent cold spell there was a bit of a competition, around these parts, to build the biggest snowman. My own efforts were not particularly impressive, and in any case the results have long since found their way back into the water cycle, but it still an exercise that was well worth doing.

This is exactly how I feel about the operation undertaken by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, which built the world’s smallest snowman and sent out a video of the results as a sort of Christmas card late last year. The team stacked a couple of electron microscope calibration beads, and added details like eyes, nose, and smile using an ion beam. What was the point of all this effort? Well, despite what some detractors have said in the comments of the Youtube video, this sort of activity is certainly not a waste of public funds. It may seem frivolous, but it has generated a lot of attention and created much interest in this cutting edge aspect of modern science.

I hope I can secure a little more attention for it, as I have used a clip of the video in the opening sequence of the latest instalment of our video newsletter, LaboratorytalkTV. As well as the NPL snowman, the episode includes a look at the winners of the two rival microphotography competitions organised by Nikon and Olympus, including an interesting time lapse video, and provides short extracts from promotional and instructional videos recently posted by Grant Instruments and Esco Micro. We round off with an animation from Malvern Instruments, used as a teaser before the launch of its Kinexus rheometer, which has recently picked up a marketing award.

LaboratorytalkTV includes embedded links which will take you straight to places where you can find further information on any of the subjects mentioned. The video is now available from our home page, and can also be found on our own YouTube and Facebook pages (although without the clckable links).
This comment was originally published in the Laboratorytalk Newsletter