To celebrate St Patrick's Day, Ireland's national materials science centre AMBER has created a nano-sized shamrock whose stem is approximately 200,000 times smaller than a grain of salt.
The shamrock has been etched on to a silver Trinity College lapel pin.
The pin was presented by the Taoiseach to the recipient of the Science Foundation Ireland St Patrick's Day Science Medal today in Washington DC.
University of Pennsylvania academic Dr Garret A Fitzgerald was recognised for ground breaking developments in the field of cardiovascular research.
The Trinity-based AMBER (Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research) centre provides a partnership between leading researchers in material science and industry.
The shamrock was etched using AMBER's Helium Ion Microscope, which is the only one in Ireland and one of only a handful in Europe.
The microscope enables very high-resolution imaging of less than one nanometre and is used to image and pattern a range of materials.
)
