Pope to get nano Bible
2009-05-08 21:47
Jerusalem - Israeli President Shimon Peres will next week offer visiting Pope Benedict XVI an Old Testament that local scientists have fitted on to a pinhead-sized silicon chip, his office said on Friday.
The Hebrew-language Bible was engraved on a 0.5 square millimetre chip by scientists from Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology.
The veteran Israeli statesman will present the 308 428-word text to the pontiff when he arrives in Israel on Monday as part of an eight-day visit to the Holy Land, his office said in a statement.
The chip is placed in a glass case decked with a magnifying glass along with technical explanations of the nano Bible in Hebrew and English, and the first 13 verses of the Book of Genesis magnified 10 000 times.
The 86-year-old president is a known enthusiast of nanotechnolgy, which he has branded as the a key to solving the Jewish state's security woes.
- AFP