Scientists at Cornell University have constructed the world’s smallest guitar—an atomic guitar—out of crystalline silicon, twenty times smaller than a human hair. I learned about this reading physicist Michio Kaku’s Physics of the Impossible, a book which explores cutting edge technologies and the realm of science fiction. Kaku is a co-founder of string field theory, a branch of theoretical physics which aims to explain the underlying structure of the universe in terms of vibrating strings.

The atomic guitar is a nano-device carved using electron beams. Its six strings are each one hundred atoms thick, and the strings can be plucked using an atomic force microscope. The music it plays, however, is at frequencies 17 octaves above the range of human hearing, so don’t expect to attend an atomic concert any time soon. The New York Times in 2003 reported that the Cornell scientists also constructed a nanodrum from a crisscross diamond mesh and a nanoxylophone with tiny diamond bars. We’re well on our way to the atomic orchestra.

Although these are human-built devices, nature already possesses an atomic orchestra. The same New York Times article noted that NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory discovered a black hole humming a bass note 57 octaves below middle C. Planets and stars are humming away, too, emitting pitches, whistles and rhythmic beats. And if evidence is eventually found to support string theory, then musically vibrating strings will turn out to be the essence of all matter, including ourselves.