British Scientists Develop Smallest Christmas Card

The world’s smallest Christmas card has been developed in the UK. (NPL)
The world’s smallest Christmas card has been developed in the UK. (NPL)
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British Scientists Develop Smallest Christmas Card

The world’s smallest Christmas card has been developed in the UK. (NPL)
The world’s smallest Christmas card has been developed in the UK. (NPL)

The world’s smallest Christmas card has been developed in the UK. A seasonal greeting so tiny that over 200 million of them could fit into a standard postage stamp, Reuters reported.

The card, created by two British scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s national measurement standards laboratory, measures 15 x 20 micrometers. A micrometer is one millionth of a meter.

It is made from platinum-coated silicon nitride, and was illustrated using a focused ion beam. The card’s cover features an etching of a snowman, above the words “Seasons Greetings,” as well as a seasonal message inside.

NPL’s Dr. David Cox, who created the card along with his colleague Dr. Kin Mingard, said the technology used in its making had more practical uses.

“We are using the tools that created the card to accurately measure the thickness of extremely small features in materials, helping to unlock new battery and semiconductor technologies,” he added.

The NPL said that the previous smallest Christmas card measured 200 x 209 micrometers, making their effort over 100 times smaller.



Heatwaves in Spain Caused 1,180 Deaths in Past Two Months, Ministry Says

The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria. (Getty Images/AFP)
The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Heatwaves in Spain Caused 1,180 Deaths in Past Two Months, Ministry Says

The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria. (Getty Images/AFP)
The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria. (Getty Images/AFP)

High temperatures caused 1,180 deaths in Spain in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year, the Environment Ministry said on Monday.

The vast majority of people who died were over 65 and more than half were women, the data it cited showed.

The most affected regions were Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias and Cantabria - all located in the northern half of the country, where traditionally cooler summer temperatures have seen a significant rise in recent years.

Like other countries in Western Europe, Spain has been hit by extreme heat in recent weeks, with temperatures often topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The 1,180 people who died of heat-related causes between May 16 and July 13 compared with 114 in the same period in 2024, the ministry said in a statement citing data from the Carlos III Health Institute. The number of deaths increased significantly in the first week of July.

The data shows an event "of exceptional intensity, characterized by an unprecedented increase in average temperatures and a significant increase in mortality attributable to heatwaves", the ministry said.

In the period the data covers, there were 76 red alerts for extreme heat, compared with none a year earlier.

Last summer, 2,191 deaths were attributed to heat-related causes in Spain, according to data from the Carlos III Health Institute.

The data from Spain follows a rapid scientific analysis published on July 9 that said around 2,300 people died of heat-related causes across 12 European cities during a severe heatwave in the 10 days to July 2.

It was not immediately clear whether the study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was using the same methodology as the Spanish data.