Muzings From The Edge: How Many Angels Dance on the Head of a Pin?
Remember the saying, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin”? Well thanks to a fellow by the name of Willard Wigans we may be on the way to getting an answer to that question.
I have been fortunate to witness things that only those in my age generation and those who were lucky enough to be in the right place could have observed as it happened. Perhaps not always on the scene but at least by virtue of television or by reading in the paper. Some of these where phenomenal, great, wonderful things while others were less celebratory. I served in the Marines while John Kennedy was President and when he guided us through the close encounter with Russia in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. I was serving when he was assassinated. I remember the first moon walk by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and the advent of computers into the hands of regular people. Students, like me who once waited for hours and hours to sit at a key punch machine to punch out a stack of cards and hand then to one of the people with “special knowledge” about computers. I remember America moving from the imagination of radio to the moving pictures of television in the home and its growth to such realistic clarity that one actually feels that he is there within the scene. And, oh God I can’t even start to mention the miraculous advances in the field of medicine with open heart surgery, replacing severed limbs, artificial hearts, and organ transplants.
I could go on and on for hours but that would defeat the purpose of this weeks adventure as seen through the eyes of a simpleton such as myself. As a disclaimer I will acknowledge upfront that at times I take on childlike qualities about some things and it doesn’t take a lot to fascinate me or intrigued me. Like a person who was subjected to shock therapy for a bit too long I get hooked on something and like a five year old I will stare at it for hours upon hours and then perhaps take it a part to see how it works. OK, not taking this apart.
Some of you may have already heard of this and the man behind it. His name is Willard Wigan and he is a nano artist. I know all of you MMA fans reading this probably already know about this and have seen it but for the few who are uneducated I will briefly explain. Try to remember the last time you tried to sew a button on a shirt or a pair pants, or perhaps darn a pair of socks (do people even do that any more). Remember how aggravating it was to get the damn thread through the needle. You would run the thread through your lips to moisten it a bit so you could form a point to get it started through the eye of the needle. They even invented a little tool called a needle threader (I guess) which had a small piece of wire which made it easier to ring that tiny little hole. Well if you think that was tough then think about Mr. Wigan’s job or I guess I should say profession.
If you have a needle handy pick it up, just an ordinary old sewing needle and look closely at the eye. What do you see? A very, very small hole that is almost impossible to get much of anything through. Now, think about an entire sculpture being created inside that hole in great and perfect detail. Yep, you read that right. A sculpture of say the Statute of Liberty in perfect detail standing inside the eye of a common sewing needle. No, then perhaps a sculpture of an elephant standing on top of a nail Amazing does not even start to describe this man’s talent. Using a piece of dust plucked out the air as a part of the sculpture? Hogwash. Not to anyone who saw his work. Of all the things I have seen in my lifetime, this is indeed one of the most wondrous. Like I said it doesn’t take much to entertain me. But, you be the judge. Check out the video.
That is amazing. Never ceases to amaze me what people can accomplish.
Here is some artistry that was created with a STM (scanning tunneling microscope). A STM can grab and position individual atoms. The thickness of a human hair is about 1.2 million atoms in width so you can get a sense of the scale involved.
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/atomo.html
All of this makes my go blind.
Those miniature artists are obsessive. I can’t imagine how you could display such a thing. Here is a painting on a single hair! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4836662.stm
I think you buy a microscope with a really big lens.
Isn’t it surprising what sparks creativity in people, that guy is amazing.
I don’t if even amazing describes this guy. His level of patience has to be extraordinary.
I loved Knott’s Berry Farm and spent several wonderful days there. It was the highlight of our California life. I agree with Oso, old friend, incredible 🙂
That he is. I guess you would have to display them in a magnified display case.
Wow! I used to love looking at tiny works of art at Knotts Berry Farm, carved within maybe a walnut or something of that nature. This is incredible man. Best I could do was model cars.
I can’t even imagine this. I was looking at a needle as I wrote this and then looked at the details. Un friggin’ believable.