At this point in his trip to Israel, President Obama has likely already received his gift from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: a 2,000-year-old stone from Jerusalem embedded with a “gold-coated silicon chip” engraved, in an area of 0.04 square millimeters, with the Israeli and American declarations of independence.
“The etching was done by accelerating charged atoms, called ions, and bombarding them at various points on the surface of the chip,” explains Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology, which created the chip at Netanyahu’s request. “When an ion beam hits the chip it creates a tiny recess, in this case 20 nanometers deep.” Oh. Okay.
We don’t know what Obama brought for Netanyahu, but for the love of God, don’t let it be a DVD boxed set.
