[colorado tanker]

Patterson's team have now set their sights on even more precise records of historical climate. They have built a robot able to shave 0.05 micrometre slivers along the growth lines of fossilised clam shells, giving a resolution of less than a day. "We can get you mid-July temperatures from 400 million years ago," he says.

Impressive, if they can pull this off.

[SunkenCiv]

As long as they aren’t contaminating their tiny little samples with material from their own tools, I’ll look forward to their making good on that boast. :’)