Two chunks of the purest crystal of silicon ever grown are sitting in a lab in Australia. In the next few months, if all goes to plan, these chunks will become the roundest spheres in the world.
The man charged with grinding and polishing the two A$1 million (US$875,000) pieces of crystal is Achim Leistner, who came to Australia from Germany as a refugee more than 40 years ago. Today, Leistner is based at the Australian Centre for Precision Optics in Sydney, and he’s renowned as the world’s top creator of “silicon balls”.
Leistner has made about 40 of…
