Talk about the separation of science and religion. A group of Israeli scientists printed the entire text of the Hebrew Bible on to an area smaller than half a grain of sugar, no doubt enraging anti-science religious zealots and anti-religion scientific hard-liners alike. It took the nanotechnology experts from the Technion institute in Haifa an hour to etch the Torah's 300,000 words by blasting gallium ions onto a tiny silicon surface.

The scientists weren't trying to make any specific statement about religion, but instead to draw attention to the capabilities of nanotechnology as a way of storing data.

The Guinness Book of World Records current "smallest bible ever" is probably the wordier King James Version (you know, the one that accounts for yesterday's big holiday). However, since it's fifty times larger this new one, we think it's safe to say that nanotech will be the medium of all future "world's smallest book" claims.

Tiny Bible, via Engadget