Cell-sized bull a mini marvel

Scientists hope machines this size might travel through the human body delivering medicine in specific places

(CNN) -- This model of a bull, created by scientists in Japan, is the size of a single red blood cell.

It's the smallest object ever created by humans, and was sculpted by two laser beams focused across resin. The resin solidified only where the lasers crossed.

Created by a team of researchers at Osaka University in Japan, the bull measures 10 micrometers from horns to tail, and seven micrometers across.

A micrometer is one-thousandth of a millimeter.

Reported in the latest edition of the journal Nature, the scientists who created the bull say they it is a step in the direction of creating micro-machines that could find applications in science and medicine.

Beast of burden

"We dream that this bull pulls a drug cart through the blood vessels," says team member Hong-Bo Sun.

The Bull was chosen, Nature reports, because it has a "very sophisticated three-dimensional shape with sharp tips and a smooth and rough body".

The team at Osaka University suggests that similar-sized micro machines might eventually travel around the body, using veins and arteries as highways, to treat disease.

Similar technology could also be used to make microscopic sensors, templates for cell cultures and three-dimensional computer memories.