Behold, the world’s smallest Austin Prep logo. Why was it made? Important reasons, that’s why. This tiny logo is a micrograph made with a nanofrazor in Zurich, Switzerland which was made by the company my father works for. A nanofrazor is a machine used in various different types of research. Its purpose is nano-fabrication. Nanofabrication is the creation of patterns and devices that are in the range of 110-9 meters (one billionth of a meter, or one nanometer) to 110-6 meters (one-millionth of a meter, or one micrometer). A tiny, hot needle is used to remove material from the surface of a polymer-coated glass plate. A nanofrazor can make structures as small as 15 nm.

The unit of the X- and Y- axes of the micrograph is μm (micrometers). The Austin Prep logo in this image is about 18 μm x 18 μm. In comparison, the thickness of a human hair ranges from 100-200 μm. That being said, ten of these minuscule logos could be lined up on the diameter of a hair. This incredible feat of engineering is one of the reasons I want to pursue the sciences in college.