Nano the Car

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Using the parts inside a single molecule, scientists have constructed the world's smallest car. It has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs, spheres of pure carbon containing 60 atoms apiece.

It'd be a real squeeze to take it for a spin, however.

The whole car is no more than 4 nanometers across. That's slightly wider than a strand of DNA. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers thick.

Other groups have made car-shaped nanoscale objects. But this is the first one that rolls "on four wheels in a direction perpendicular to its axles," the researchers reported Thursday.

What's the point? Nanotrucks, of course.

Eventually the researchers want to build tiny trucks that could carry atoms and molecules around in miniature factories.

"We'd eventually like to move objects and do work in a controlled fashion on the molecular scale, and these vehicles are great test beds for that," said James Tour, a Rice University research who co-led the work. "They're helping us learn the ground rules."
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Soon they will replace 3rd world workers, 1st and 2nd world too! Pretty cool stuff I must admit.

051020_nanocar_02.jpg
 
GFLPraxis said:
Dude, nobody is ever going to need trucks to carry INDIVIDUAL ATOMS :eek:
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a few trillion trucks here, a few trillion robots there, soon it adds up. Quantity and Quality (well maybe).
 
GFLPraxis said:
Dude, nobody is ever going to need trucks to carry INDIVIDUAL ATOMS :eek:
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I object! Every one of your cells has little pumps that act as vehicles to remove individual atoms. You'd be dead without them :). This kind of technique could lead to something fantastic for people with diseases like cystic fibrosis. Could also apply to circuvent acquired drug resistance in some cancers.

If only they could paint a little red cross on the side of them.....;)
 
It's good to see that such important scientific endeavours are being explored through months of intense research and experimentation.

I realize that there is potential use for this, but there are more realistic and manageable things that time/money could be spent on.
 
Whyren said:
there are more realistic and manageable things that time/money could be spent on.
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too true, too true.
and to think that not too many years ago self-proclaimed scientists were wasting time and resources observing molds, generating cute tiny light beams, playing with little solid semiconductor devices and other impractical time-wasters
 
Don't panic said:
too true, too true.
and to think that not too many years ago self-proclaimed scientists were wasting time and resources observing molds, generating cute tiny light beams, playing with little solid semiconductor devices and other impractical time-wasters
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Point taken. Research is always such a minefield of monetary use vs results/PR...take too long to release something, people complain for holding back helpful technologies; release it quicker with less testing, people get sick/hurt/other and sue, costing money, further hindering future research. I don't mean to say that this is impractical as it could have quite a variety of uses...it's just a bit out and up from where much research today stands meaning there's a higher likelihood of great success/complete failure in it.

...I'm not entirely sure that last sentence made any sense...
 
.Andy said:
I object! Every one of your cells has little pumps that act as vehicles to remove individual atoms. You'd be dead without them :). This kind of technique could lead to something fantastic for people with diseases like cystic fibrosis. Could also apply to circuvent acquired drug resistance in some cancers.

If only they could paint a little red cross on the side of them.....;)
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How are you going to DRIVE it inside a person? I think a control system is bigger than a few atoms.
 
Hmm if they build Nano trucks in mass quantities I might have to invest in the first ever Nano fuel station. :D
 
...What's the point? Nanotrucks, of course...
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My first thought?

80,000 really confused people in a football stadium who each paid $20 to watch my "nano Monster-truck" show! :D
 
mpw said:
My first thought?

80,000 really confused people in a football stadium who each paid $20 to watch my "nano Monster-truck" show! :D
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[dumb hick voice]"Umm, Betty Sue, I thought we's gonna come here and watch da Grave Digger smash some cars, not deez little critters?"[/dumb hick voice]
 
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