Western University facility builds ‘world’s smallest snowman’

The world’s smallest snowman has been built right here in Ontario, according to Western University’s Nanofabrication Facility.

The facility published an image of the tiny snowman on their tumblr page earlier this month, complete with eyes, nose, arms and a smile.

Todd Simpson, from the facility, told the Canadian Press the snowman stands less than 3 microns tall and is significantly smaller than a strand of human hair — which measures roughly 50 microns in diameter.

They used an electron beam lithography to stack three 0.9 microns silica spheres to create the snowman. The eyes and mouth were cut with a focused ion beam and the arms and nose were sculpted with platinum.

According to the Guinness World Records website, the official world’s smallest snowman measured at 10 microns in diameter and was created by scientists at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom.

The facility has been making national headlines for their festive creation.