Miniature milestone as Russian claims new record for world's tiniest book

Measuring 0.07mm by 0.09mm, Vladimir Aniskin has done the delicate work ‘between heartbeats’ to create his tiny tome, about a flea’s shoes

A Russian scientist has created what he claims is the world’s smallest book, and is preparing to submit it to Guinness World Records for verification.

Microminiaturist Vladimir Aniskin, from Novosibirsk in Siberia, spent five years developing the technology to create the book, which measures 70 by 90 micrometres, or 0.07mm by 0.09mm. It then took him a month to create, by hand, two versions. The first, Levsha, is named after Nikolai Leskov’s 19th-century story The Steel Flea, in which a craftsman from Tula beats the English by managing to nail flea shoes on the clockwork flea they have created. Aniskin’s Levsha contains the names of other microminiaturists who can also, in his words “shoe the flea”. His second book, Alphabet, contains the Russian alphabet.

Continue reading...