Twelve surprising little things
From microorganisms to microchips: the world of infinitesimally small things can teach us a thing or two about efficiency—while never ceasing to amaze.
Minuscule microchips
The miniaturisation trend in computer technology continues unabated. The distance between data lanes on modern microchips is now a mere twelve nanometres—five thousand times finer than a human hair. If today’s technology were used to reconstruct the very first commercial computer, the original twenty-seven metric ton colossus would be invisible to the naked eye.
Hungry hummingbirds
The world’s smallest bird is the bee hummingbird, a species native to Cuba. Males are just five centimetres long and weigh two grams, while the females are slightly larger. Their little hearts beat eight, their wings eighty times per second. But to survive, these tiny birds need to consume half their body weight in nectar every day.
Perfidious particulates
The finest particulates—minute particles that even the best filters can’t remove from the air—are the most detrimental to our health. Because they’re so tiny, they can penetrate particularly deep into our lungs—and even our brains. Prolonged exposure causes respiratory tract infections and can lead to diminished mental capacities.
Potent poison
The deadliest of all known substances is botulinum toxin, or “botox”. As little as one ten-millionth of a gram is enough to kill a human being. Paradoxically, however, the poison is also used as a medication to treat muscle spasms—and as a cosmetic procedure to remove wrinkles.
Fine-nosed fish
It’s believed the European eel has the best nose in the animal kingdom. It can even smell substances at a concentration of just one thousand seven hundred and seventy molecules per gram of water—that’s the same as a drop of perfume in a body of water three times the size of Lake Constance.
Paltry pull
Although gravity governs our everyday lives, in physical terms it’s absurdly weak—electromagnetic force is one sextillion (a number with thirty-six zeros!) times stronger than gravity. That’s why a small magnet can hold a note on the fridge although the whole Earth is pulling it downwards.
Eye spy
Cyanobacteria have the smallest eyes in the world. Or rather: they are the smallest eyes in the world. Each one of these round, single-celled organisms acts as a tiny eyeball. Light is refracted on the cell’s surface and collected on the cell wall opposite. This way, cyanobacteria can sense where light is coming from and move towards it.
Malleable metal
Gold is the most flexible of all metals. Theoretically, one single gram could be stretched into a super-fine thread measuring twenty-four kilometres. That’s a thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper.
Rhine riddles
Any given sample of the Rhine near Basel contains two to three thousand organic substances, most in very small concentrations. The vast majority are unknown—it’s not even clear if they’re micropollutants or if they occur naturally.
Gargantuan growth
The giant sequoia known as “General Sherman” is believed to be the largest living tree on Earth. It’s estimated to weigh almost two thousand metric tons—making it some four hundred billion times heavier than the seed from which it sprang.
Oodles of organisms
The most common organism in the world is the Pelagibacter ubique, a bacteria measuring not quite two hundred nanometres that floats en masse in the ocean waters. However, despite their smallness, there are so many of them that their combined biomass is believed to be a billion metric tons—which is twice as much as the combined weight of all humans.
Biting brigade
Ants, when they join forces, can make the mighty elephant take flight—even though, one-to-one, the mammal is two million times heavier. Ants do it by biting the elephants in their hypersensitive trunks. Elephants are also afraid of bees: they make tracks if they so much as hear a swarm buzzing.