"What is this? A centre for ants?" Derek Zoolander was pretty upset when he was shown the scale model of the School For Children Who Can't Read Good, so it is safe to say he would freak out if he saw the tiny house built using nanorobotics technology at the Femto-ST nanoscience research institute in France.

This structure is the smallest microhouse in the world and the front door is so tiny not even a mite would be able to squeeze through.

Minuscule

The minuscule house, complete with a tiled roof, was assembled atop an optical fibre tip within a vacuum by the Institute’s Robotex nanofactory using optical nanotechnology.

Researcher Jean-Yves Rauch says it was created to demonstrate the ability to design and assemble a structure within 2 nanometres of accuracy and will have several applications including the making of 3D biosensors.

[ https://avs.scitation.org/doi/10.1116/1.5020128Opens in new window ]