Scientists create world's fastest spinning man-made object

The world's fastest spinning man-made object has been created by a team of researchers at a British university.

The team of three from the University of St Andrews were able to levitate and spin a microscopic sphere up to 600 million revolutions per minute.

The speed is about half a million times faster than the spin of a washing machine and more than a thousand times faster than a dental drill.

Dr Yoshihiko Arita, Dr Michael Mazilu and Professor Kishan Dholakia of the School of Physics and Astronomy said their work is a breakthrough.

Prof Dholakia said: "The team has performed a real breakthrough piece of work that we believe will resonate with the international community.

"In addition to the exciting fundamental physics aspects, this experiment will allow us to probe the nature of friction in very small systems, which has relevance to the next generation of microscopic devices.

"It's always good to hold a world record - even if for only a while."

PA