Scientists figure out how to write really really small

Scientists in California have figured out how to write really really small.

Two Stanford University physicists have succeeded in writing two letters -- an "S" and a "U," in honor of their employer -- small enough that if used to print out the 32-volume set of Encyclopedia Britannica 2,000 times, the contents would fit on the head of a pin, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday.

The nanoscribes, Hari Manoharan and Chris Moon, say the accomplishment, in which they used electron beam lithography, has no practical purpose but proves that information can be stored at small sizes below the level of the atom, giving theoretical backing to continued efforts to reduce the amount of time and space necessary for computers to store and retrieve data, the newspaper said.

Attention Stanford Students and Donors: Your money is going to pay for things that have no practical purpose. Why create new technology or find cures to medical problems when you can create something with no practical purpose.