This is infotainment

Japanese scientists create microscopic noodle bowl

Japanese scientists say they have used cutting-edge technology to create a noodle bowl so small it can be seen only through a microscope.

Mechanical engineering professor Masayuki Nakao said Thursday he and his students at the University of Tokyo used a carbon-based material to produce a noodle bowl with a diameter 1/25,000 of an inch in a project aimed at developing nanotube-processing technology.

A "carbon-based material"? Aren't all of us carbon-based materials?

What on Earth does the writer of this piece think the information level of readers has sunk to, if it's necessary to use such a locution instead of "carbon nanotube"? And since when is "1/25,000 of an inch" a better way to say "1 micron"?

The Japanese-style ramen bowl was carved out of microscopic nanotubes, Nakao said.

Nanotubes are tube-shaped pieces of carbon, measuring about one-ten-thousandth of the thickness of a human hair.

Carbon nanotubes are being explored for a wide range of uses in electronics and medicine because their structure endows them with powerful physical properties such as a strength greater than steel.