World’s smallest Christmas card and a fusion Christmas number one

By Hamish Johnston

We are winding down for Christmas here at Physics World and taking a well-deserved break before we launch into 2018.

Over the next week or so, stay tuned for festive content including a comic caption competition on Christmas Day that is inspired by this year’s Nobel prize.

On 27 December, our master of mirth (and news editor) Michael Banks will serve-up his picks of the quirkiest stories of 2017.

Today, Physics World editor and psychic-in-chief Matin Durrani peers into his quasicrystal ball and predicts what 2018 will bring for physics and physicists.

I hope you enjoy the above video, which features the world’s smallest Christmas card – at least according to its makers at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory. Measuring just 15×20 µm, it’s one tenth the size of the previous record holder

Giant bauble: looking for the world’s biggest Christmas tree (Courtesy: Tokamak Energy)

Elsewhere in the UK, the company Tokamak Energy is claiming a rather specialized Christmas record. Apparently, the current top three papers (in terms of downloads) in the journal Nuclear Fusion are from the company. So that’s a Christmas number one, two and three for Tokamak Energy’s physicists.

Happy holidays from Physics World.