Posted on 05/03/2016 6:26:56 AM PDT by Red Badger
Driving force: an Ant combines microscopic gold balls with a polymer gel to propel nanobots. Medicine is one potential application ===============================================================================================================
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Scientists have developed a microscopic engine, the smallest in the world, that they say is the first one capable of driving nanobots, including medical robots that could travel through the body.
The prototype device, known as an actuating nano-transducer or Ant, combines microscopic gold balls with a special polymer gel. It generates a propulsive force on a microscopic scale that is a hundred times greater per unit weight than any known motor or muscle.
“People have been talking about making nanobots for many years but they do not exist yet,” said Professor Jeremy Baumberg, leader of the project at Cambridge university. “Why not? Because so far there has been no way of making them move through liquids — which is like swimming through treacle on the nanoscale because the molecular forces are so strong.”
He says Ant engines, described for the first time in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, would provide sufficient power. “Like real ants they provide large forces for their weight,” he said. “The challenge we now face is how to control the force for nano-machinery applications.”
The Ant is powered by physical rather than chemical reactions. It contains gold nanoparticles, each about 0.06 microns, or a thousandth of the width of a human hair, in diameter in water with a gel-like polymer called pNIPAM.
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When the temperature is above the critical temperature of 32C, the gold particles are bound tightly together with the polymer through intermolecular attraction. When it falls below 32C, the polymer suddenly absorbs water and expands — and the gold particles are pushed rapidly apart like a spring.
“It’s like an explosion,” said Tao Ding, another member of the team. “We have hundreds of gold balls flying apart in a millionth of a second when water molecules inflate the polymers around them.”
The reaction is completely and rapidly reversible, experiments show. When the temperature rises again, the Ant stores a large amount of elastic energy in a fraction of a second as the polymer coating expels water from the gel and contracts around the gold particles. “The whole process is like a nano-spring,” said Prof Baumberg.
The prototype Ant uses laser light to control the system’s temperature but other mechanisms could be used instead. The transition point could also be adjusted, for example to set the energy release point close to 37C — the human body’s normal temperature.
The Ant might drive a nanobot through a series of piston strokes, rather like a car engine but on a scale many billions of times smaller.
“The concept can underpin a plethora of future designs,” Prof Baumberg said. The team is working with Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s commercialisation arm, to develop practical applications for the technology.
Go long gold..
Hail ants
These guys are liars. I know because my wife used to have a Ford Escort station wagon. Nothing with any kind of engine could have less power. The car was so under powered it had trouble accelerating down hill. About the best thing you could say about it was it looked OK in a driveway.
“High quality global journalism requires investment.”
Microscopic engine that can transport nanorobots through the body. The ultimate in healthcare and key to perpetual longevity. Fantasy meets sci-fi in real life.
This has been theorized back in the 80s if I recall, and corporations have been broadcasting headway for some time.
There was a funny movie on this topic—wasn’t it called Inner Space?
What year Ford Escort?
I got a ford escort hatchback up to 120 once - pace car along side....course it was downhill...
“What year Ford Escort?”
We had a 1983 Escort. The kids loved to ride in it for some reason but it was scary slow. We replaced it with a Nissan Sentra
I think I preferred “Fantastic Voyage”...
Are gold balls better than brass ones?
I confess I had to look it up. Sounds like a GREAT movie! It’s now on my, ‘I REALLY want to watch this,’ list.
Good movie even though it didn’t address the remains of the sub reverting back to full size.
Bttt.
5.56mm
Isaac Asimov published a small magazine in the 1980’s.
I think it was called Science Fiction Stories, and it was a monthly collection of ScFi stories from various writers, including Isaac Asimov.
One story was of a tiny robot named CORA whose only job in life was to travel the veins and arteries of her host, a man who had a cardiac condition.
The story ends with CORA working endlessly to save the mans life, but the inevitable heart attack comes and he passes away.
It was a very moving story, but somehow I lost my copy years ago, and I’ve looked long and hard to find it with no success.
Thanks for that heads up! Asimov is a fascinating writer. I read one of his Black Widowers Club collections, and couldn’t put it down. Great stuff!
Did you know Asimov was contracted to write the book to go along with Fantastic Voyage? Some author wrote a story with the germ of the idea, but never finished it. That effort was turned into a screenplay/movie, but the producers wanted an accompanying novel. Tapped Asimov for the job—what a guy!
My parents took us Disney World when I was a kid. I think I remember a ride about being shrunk down and traveling through someone’s body.
I don’t remember the movie, but even as far back as ‘Alice in Wonderland’ the idea of shrinking people has been out there. And in fairy folklore now that I think of it.
But this is going to revolutionize solutions to all of humanity’s earthly problems. It can also get downright spooky.
Good news? People will have a choice reg ‘Mark of the Beast’. It will not ‘just happen’ to people.
That is our anchor of sanity.
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