Scientists create a nativity scene so tiny it fits inside the eye of a needle – and Jesus is smaller than a human cell!
The scene is small enough to balance on your eyelash
SCIENTISTS have created a nativity scene so tiny that it fits inside the eye of a needle.
The 3D-printed sculpture is invisible to the naked eye and features Mary, Joseph, the Three Kings a camel, a bull, a donkey, two sheep, and the manger.
Baby Jesus also makes an appearance, though you'd have trouble spotting him – his likeness is smaller than a human cell.
The model was made by scientists at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and the Vilnius University Laser Research Center.
Named the ‘Nano Holy Family’, it is a miniature replica of the Nativity Scene at Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The scene's 15 sculptures all fit onto a disc with a diameter of just 300 micrometers – less than twice the width of a human hair.
To create the model the statues of Cathedral Square were scanned with state-of-the-art lasers.
Each sculpture was then painstakingly constructed using 3D printing techniques.
The scene is 10,000 times smaller than the real-world nativity it's based on.
Pope Francis received one of the scenes last year as a gift from Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.
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The team behind the creation say it is the smallest nativity scene in the word, and have submitted it to the Guiness World Records committee for official recognition.
“Sometimes the most important and impressive things are invisible to the naked eye, but we all know that they are real and true," they wrote on the project's website, NanoJesus.com.
"This is the world’s smallest Nativity Scene; and although you cannot see it with your naked eye, it is real and it is here."
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