Benjy and Bruno in Nanoland

David and Harry Kroto

Here are Benjy and Bruno

A boy and his faithful friend

Benjy is clever and enjoys his food

And Bruno is a dog with attitude

Now Benjy could not

believe his eyes

For he and the

football were now

the same size!

What on earth had happened?

He couldn’t understand a thing

It was a all bit scary… but also quite exciting!

0

0.5

1

0

100

nm

µ1micron (µ) = 1000 nanometres(nm)

As they both shrunk yet again in size

And became incredibly tiny

A lesson on small sizes Benjy could recall

That his height was now 100 nanometers …that’s all

He then looked up to see a little frog

That peered at him, with eyes all agog

He then realised a truly amazing thing

He could understand the frog’s croaking!

Benjy asked about the words in the hat

I’ve no idea said the frog

Why don’t you ask the tortoise

He’s as clever, as your dog

DNA was like a staircase

As it spiraled round and round

When Benjy climbed onto it

He helter-skeltered down to the ground

They were now so small they could fit inside the cage

Of this molecule that had formed in the flame

So inside they both squeezed

And set off on an adventure again

Susie had breathed the Buckyball in

Which in the fire’s smoke had swirled

Then just at that moment she sneezed again

And whoosh they were back in the outside world

Our world is really very bigA football a hundred million times smaller

The Buckyball is smaller again by the same amount

And that’s really small, by any account!

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

-6

-7

-8

10cm

-9

1cm

1mm

100μ

10μ

1μ

100nm

1m

Buckyball 1nm

Large Virus 100nm

Football 20 cm

Baby tortoise 3 cm

Fly’s eye 0.5 mm

10nm

1nm

Pollen grain 200μ

White blood cell 20μ

Cell nucleus 10-1μ

Small virus 10nm