History Main / SharpenedToASingleAtom

* In the ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' trilogy the Subtle Knife has one edge sharpened so finely that it can cut through any material, the other edge is sharp enough to cut a hole in the universe leading to another one.

!!Authors
* Creator/LarryNiven:
** The variable sword used in the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' stories is a length of monomolecular wire held straight by a projected stasis field. There's a little red ball at the end of the wire so the wielder can tell where the otherwise invisible "blade" ends. There's also Sinclair molecule chain, used as ramship tow cable, that's essentially the same thing with no stasis field.
** ''Literature/TheDescentOfAnansi'' features another monofilament cable where, in effect, a space shuttle is lowered to Earth on a cable. At one point one of the baddies drifts into the cable and realises that it is already inside the faceplate of his spacesuit by the time he notices anything.
** In a couple of the ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'' novels, one of the 'strings' that held the shadow squares that provided a day/night cycle to the Ringworld had been broken and eventually fell to the surface, where it was described as a foggy cloud that minced anything that touched it. One of the main characters is semi-decapitated (lost one of his two heads, but he had spares in storage) when the natives found the end spool and strung some of the wire up as a trap.
* Creator/TerryPratchett:
** ''Literature/TheDarkSideOfTheSun'' features a monomolecular blade (which shatters when swung against a villain gifted with luck manipulation).
** In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series, both Death's scythe and sword have edges one molecule thick. Thinner, in fact -- they glow blue because of the energy released when they cut the air apart (GeniusBonus: atoms do in fact glow blue when sliced apart. It's called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation Cherenkov radiation]]). At one point, he sharpened it so finely that it was able to cut several inches ahead of its physical edge, and could cut a person's ''sentence'' in half by swinging it.

!!Individual works

** ''The Descent of Anansi'' features another monofilament cable where, in effect, a space shuttle is lowered to Earth on a cable. At one point one of the baddies drifts into the cable and realises that it is already inside the faceplate of his spacesuit by the time he notices anything.

* ''Brasyl'', by Creator/IanMcDonald, one-ups monomolecular-edged knives with the Q-blades: they have an edge that can cut quantum strings. Y'know, the stuff that decides matter ''is'' matter; essentially erasing anything the edge comes into contact with, with zero resistance. If a Q-blade ever [[LikeCannotCutLike breaks]], the flying shrapnel will slice through soil and rock, ultimately sinking towards the Earth's core.

* ''The Fountains Of Paradise'' by Creator/ArthurCClarke has something very similar to this, but, Clarke being Clarke, it is depicted in a manner closer to scientific reality than most examples on this page. Construction of a SpaceElevator becomes a realistic possibility after the development of a process to manufacture a "pseudo-one-dimensional diamond crystal" a few microns thick in continuous lengths, forming invisible fibres of enormous tensile strength. Its main application is as a tension member (of course), not as a weapon, though much attention is given to the handling difficulties and dangers of such a material. Its sharpness is also reasonably realistic--it is extremely sharp, but not [[AbsurdlySharpBlade absurdly so]]--it can easily cause severe wounds through mere inattention to handling, but to deliberately cut down a tree with it takes a couple of minutes, and the length of time it takes to cut through a metal fastening with it is an important element at one point in the story.

* In Creator/DanielKeysMoran's ''The Long Run'', there is the "emblade" (hand-held knife) which goes along with "fineline" (a spool of wire of any length). Both appear to have an edge approximately one molecule wide, allowing them to easily cut through anything. The emblade is useful for cutting holes in walls and floors, because you can simply glue the piece back into place and it is hard to detect. Fineline is useful for putting in front of missile ports, with unfortunate consequences for the missile when it is fired.

* In ''Man of the Ice Garden'', Vuko Drakkainen, a visitor from future Earth to a primitive planet, uses a Nordland Aeronautics shinobi ken sword with monomolecular blade. He once made a swing at a "monster" and accidentally cut through the ceiling without even noticing until some of its parts fell down. He also accidentally cut through the dog, which hit the ground [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe twice]].

* Best-quality tips of scanning probe microscopes are ''literally'' single atom-wide and able to resolve individual atoms of the sample.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Ultratech'' has a number of (increasingly super-science) ways of working this into the game mechanics. Superfine blades divide damage resistance by two. Monowire blades divide damage resistance by ten. Nanothorn blades divide damage resistance by ten and ''shreds'' the bonds that hold the atoms in molecules together.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''

* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', ''Megatraveller Journal'' #3, "Worldguide: Vincennes": The Tech Level 16 world Vincennes creates swords of extruded monofilament construction which have astounding penetration.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

* A manual for ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' states that Ultralisk blades are monomolecular, but this seems to be a case of a writer simply getting carried away with RuleOfCool, as there is no indication elsewhere that this is the case. In game cinematics make you wonder why sharpness would even matter, as their "real" size is shown as far larger than their already large in game models, to the point that their blades are individually larger than things like Terran tanks. They're often shown using their arms more like like bludgeons, crushing most targets easily, making actually slicing most things totally unnecessary. It does at least make some sense in game where units are all much closer in size and their attack animations do involve slicing with the blades, though.

** In the short story "[[HoYay/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Side Trip]]", Jodo Kast, who is actually Thrawn in disguise, gives one to [[spoiler:Corran Horn]].

[[caption-width-right:200:[[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda "Said to be so sharp that it hurts just by looking—ow!"]]]]

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[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/persuader_dc_comics_post_reboot_lsh_fatal_five_a.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[ArtisticLicensePhysics That someone flunked physics?]]]]

[[folder:Comics]]

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': The Persuader, a member of the Fatal Five, has an axe that he claims is so sharp it can shatter electrons. In some stories, it is sharp enough ''to cut through the force of gravity''. ([[BellisariosMaxim Try not to think about that too hard.]])

** In a couple of the ''Literature/RingWorld'' novels, one of the 'strings' that held the shadow squares that provided a day/night cycle to the Ringworld had been broken and eventually fell to the surface, where it was described as a foggy cloud that minced anything that touched it. One of the main characters is semi-decapitated (lost one of his two heads, but he had spares in storage) when the natives found the end spool and strung some of the wire up as a trap.

* In ''Literature/TheCityWhoFought'' by Creator/AnneMcCaffrey and Creator/SMStirling, Joat lays a trap using monomolecular wire. The effects are messy.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Literature/WearingtheCape'': Repercussions, we see Nike, EU's resident Atlas-Type heroine – homologous to Astra – weilding a glowing leaf-bladed sword and a large Greek hoplite shield, described as having ''nearly monomolecular edges as grasping vines simply sheared away on contact.''

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''

* In ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' Franchise/WonderWoman has a magic sword that is sharp enough to "carve the electrons off an atom". Leaving aside the ways that doesn't actually make sense, it suggests a blade with an edge thinner than an atom. Franchise/{{Superman}} accidentally cuts himself on the blade.

** Obsidian can be made up to 100 times sharper than steel (the cutting edge can be reduced to 3 nanometers thick). According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, "even the sharpest metal knife has a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope; when examined even under an electron microscope an obsidian blade is still smooth and even." For surgical application, the blades are so sharp that in certain circumstances, no anesthetic is necessary to make the cut. [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sswf3heCoxg/T_nNlzq2F0I/AAAAAAAARNU/F05SmCWV34A/s1600/obsidian+razor.png (See here)]]

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-585 SCP-585 ("Sharpeners")]] can do this to pencils. After 100 rotations, the point is so thin it ''splits atoms''.

* To prepare a slide for an electron microscope, a diamond or broken glass blade is used to get a less-than-paper-thin slice. Once properly sharpened, it's about a hundred atoms wide, and it will slide through your hand as easily as through the air. Glass blades are sharper (and cheaper) but wear out after a few dozen slides; diamond blades last almost forever.
** And if it slices through your hand, not only are you bleeding horribly, but you'll need a new diamond blade, [[AddingInsultToInjury because cutting through your flesh just broke the damn thing.]]