A team of Japanese engineers has created the smallest sculpture ever: a 3-D bull measuring only 10 by 7 micrometers — the size of a red blood cell.

The bull was etched in transparent plastic with a pair of lasers. The plastic resin solidified at the focal point of the two lasers in a process called two-photon photo-polymerization.

The tiny structures demonstrate the possibility of making micro-components for nanomachines.

The research is described a recent issue of Nature.