20,000 soccer pitches at the tip of a hair

BERLIN:  A German scientist has created the world's smallest soccer pitch -- so minute that 20,000 of them could fit onto the tip of a human hair.   

The imitation playing field, created by using nanotechnology, measures 500 by 380 nanometres and can only be seen through a special microscope, said creator Stefan Trellenkamp, whose country is hosting the 2006 World Cup.   

"I am really, really proud," the nanotechnology researcher from the University of Kaiserslautern told Reuters by telephone.   

The only problem is that I really don't know what to do with it. I can't put it on show as no one can see it," he said.

"I guess it'll just stay in my drawer for the time being".

Trellenkamp said it took him a whole day to engrave the lines of a soccer pitch with an electron beam onto a tiny piece of acrylic glass. A nanometre is a billionth of a metre.