ONE KILOGRAM PERFECT SILICON SPHERE

SOLD OUT Our Quest for the Perfect Silicon Sphere  The result of two years' work In the early 1990's a team of scientists from around the world began a project to redefine the kilogram standard of mass known as the International Avogadro Project. This resulted in the world's roundest object, a perfect sphere of crystalline Silicon. When we saw one of these $3.2 million dollar works of scientific art, we knew we needed to have one! We wondered: Could we use our expertise in making perfect metallic spheres to create a silicon crystal sphere without spending millions of dollars? The Trance Silicon Sphere: A Wild two year journey It all started with this innocent-looking block of silicon. In the following year, we'd be buying a lot of these 100mm crystals. Step 1: Finding the Right Crystal We wondered - could we take an off-the-shelf single crystal of silicon and make our own sphere? We have made thousands of metal spheres in the past, but silicon was a metalloid (more below) an