The bulb is smaller than the hair

US scientists have successfully built the world's smallest bulb. When there is electricity, it looks like a bright spot.

Scientists have to place the microscope often above the electron microscope to observe the nanoscale bulb. Photo: Livescience.

Inventor Thomas Edison used carbon fiber to make incandescent lights. Now, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, use only one carbon nanotube. Their fiber is 1.4mm long (10,000 times shorter than traditional incandescent bulbs) and 13 nanometers in diameter (equivalent to 100 atoms and 100,000 times smaller than conventional incandescent bulbs).

Innovative breakthroughs are in the context of inventors seeking to replace all of the incandescent bulbs on the planet with eco-friendly compact fluorescent lamps. They also spend a great deal of effort to lower the price of LEDs so that they can become a widely used shade. However, at the molecular level, the University of California's bulb is unlikely to handle lighting tasks in buildings and public spaces.

The above super mini light bulb is enough to apply theories of thermodynamics (for large objects), but small enough to apply quantum mechanical laws (for objects at the level molecular level). In the future, it will help scientists better understand the relationship between the macroscopic world and the microcosm.

Stephen Hawking, who was dubbed 'the king of physics', wanted to find a 'unified theory' to solve the contradictions between Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum theory. Studies on black hole radiation and nanotechnology lie on the boundaries of these two theories. We think the light bulb can help us find the unifying theory for all things in the universe , "said Chris Regan, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California.