Microscopic wheel will spin straight to your heart, literally

Sure, you've got an iPod Nano in your pocket and a VIA Nano in your custom PC, but we're willing to bet you don't have any nanomachines in your arteries at the moment. Two scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Barcelona, Ramin Golestanian and Pietro Tierno, hope to change that by turning your bodily fluids into pathways for their tiny devices. The things are comprised of two beads, measuring 1 and 3 micrometers, attached to each other using strands of DNA. A magnetic field gets 'em spinning in the right direction and the increased surface area of the larger bead moves the contraption forward at a blistering 1 micrometer per second (shown in a short but sweet video below). Now, if the good doctors could just build 11 of these things and get them in a 4-3-3 formation we'd finally know where to place our money for next year's nanosoccer RoboCup Open.

[Via Scotsman.com]

[Zinger314 @ Dec 4th 2008 3:39PM]

It's only a matter of time until the world becomes Metal Gear Solid 4.

Quick, someone call Solid Snake!

[kellogs908 @ Dec 4th 2008 4:47PM]

I was thinking more like nano battlebots ... yea I liked battlebots whats it to you?

[OneLove @ Dec 5th 2008 1:11PM]

"... call Solid Snake!...That's what she said!

[Kris120890 @ Dec 4th 2008 3:42PM]

I live a few miles from university of Sheffield. Do these have purpose or are these just to prove it can be done. It doesn't seem to say.

[Kris120890 @ Dec 4th 2008 3:48PM]

Link didn't work in firefox. They might be used to carry drugs when they're shrunk down to nano scale.

[mvp @ Dec 4th 2008 3:49PM]

They were probably developed to prove that it can be done. For instance to show that, Hey! now that we have wheels, we now have the technology to build microscopic street sweepers to clean out those clogged arteries.

[Jan @ Dec 4th 2008 3:48PM]

I would definately use 4-1-2-1-2 instead of 4-3-3

[Kris120890 @ Dec 4th 2008 3:51PM]

4-4-2 is the only way to go.

[Rehehelly @ Dec 4th 2008 3:59PM]

4-3-3?!

WHAT!? lrn2football

[konshuss @ Dec 4th 2008 4:01PM]

freemasons run the country!

[konshuss @ Dec 4th 2008 8:59PM]

low-ranking the Simpsons? wow.

[Fusion Fuzo 05 - Mr Professional @ Dec 4th 2008 4:02PM]

YUK, look un normal

[Gad Get @ Dec 4th 2008 4:47PM]

Your comments are so pointless. I mean, even iEye makes insightful comments occasionally, and when he doesn't, sometimes he at least says something funny. But you never do either of those things. Your comments have no entertainment value, or any other kind of value. They're just annoying. Please leave.

[w4rh34rt @ Dec 4th 2008 4:04PM]

It's FOOTBALL! Not soccer =]

[BlurMagic @ Dec 4th 2008 4:05PM]

I'd bring in a Nickle back on third and longs too account for the extra wide reciever. I'd send the right end on a stunt, and let my middle backer run a...

Wtf?

Damnit. I thought we were talking about football..

[Harry Wagstaff @ Dec 4th 2008 8:29PM]

We are. We're talking about a game where you primarily hit a ball with your foot. Foot hits ball.
Foot... ball.
Football.

[marcus @ Dec 4th 2008 4:08PM]

good luck clearing that through the metal detectors

[Lowest Ranked @ Dec 4th 2008 4:41PM]

Its 3 micrometers. The iron in your blood has more mass than this.... wtf?

[loocas @ Dec 4th 2008 8:05PM]

And you haven't seen my irons!

[Joe @ Dec 4th 2008 4:14PM]

Original article states that they expect it to be used to deliver drugs.

[Jarhead2012 @ Dec 4th 2008 4:18PM]

This should bring the drug trafficking industry to a new high!

[StalematE @ Dec 4th 2008 4:18PM]

microscopic drug dealers? NICE!

[donkamero @ Dec 4th 2008 4:16PM]

wow an artcile from the Scotsman newspaper linked on Engadget

[Kattleox @ Dec 4th 2008 4:16PM]

Actually, everyone has nanomachines in their arteries, as the "nanos" which we think of are simply manufactured organelles with a different and specific purpose. Look closely at the organelles within a cell and you will see that they all use mechanical movement to function: ribosomes use a piston and an electric motor to pack phosphate into ATP, for example. I doubt that any of us have human-manufactured nanomachines, though.

[Kattleox @ Dec 4th 2008 4:18PM]

And besides, these are on the micro-scale and not the nano-scale.

JUST SAYIN'!

[BlurMagic @ Dec 4th 2008 4:19PM]

Phenotypes!

[Roger @ Dec 4th 2008 4:29PM]

Ram timings?

[The WC @ Dec 4th 2008 4:39PM]

For some reason, I'm reminded of roto-rooter...

[tekd @ Dec 4th 2008 4:48PM]

I'm just waiting for the day when we can make nanoscale robots to go and read and repair DNA to cure cancer, kill off virus infections, whatever.
I don't know if I'll live to see it but if we ever really get there then pretty much anything is going to be possible if you can literally go into cells and repair stuff. Maybe insanely expensive, but in theory you could heal almost anything then.

[John @ Dec 4th 2008 6:31PM]

That's the way things are going, first they decoded the human genome, developed nanomachines, hopefully disease/viruses, hell, even old age could technically be cured.

[Byron Como @ Dec 5th 2008 10:05AM]

Sorry to disappoint you but this will in all likelihood not happen.If you have studied molecular biochemistry at all you begin to realize that all this stuff is likely to do is get caught up in the body's machinery and cause havoc. By havoc I mean poisoning. Its a nice thought but I think it will ultimately fail. The stated purpose of this device is to deliver drugs in the body. All drugs themselves eventually poison the body's machinery. There are many examples of even the simplest drugs causing liver failure (acetemenophin) or damage to the digestive tract (asprin). Read Sherry A. Rodgers for a more detailed reason why this is so.

[tekd @ Dec 10th 2008 4:53PM]

Uhh Byron, I'm a med student who knows plenty about biochemistry.
Enough to know that you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to drug toxicity. What aspirin (which causes damage to the stomache lining because it's a non-selective Cox inhibitor and the stomache relies on Cox-1 signaling to help upkeep it's protective lining) has to do with my post is beyond me.

We're talking about nanomachines here-machines literally composed of individual atoms, and what I'm talking about is the dream that one day they'll be complex and capable enough to actually reorganize molecules in our body. Forget about reactions with the machinery of the body-if we managed to create technology that advanced it could even completely replace or enhance most of the machinery in our bodies.

I'm not saying it's going to happen anytime soon, but it's still my dream to see it happen someday-and yes I do know how complex the human body is, but it's not like we didn't invent anti-inflammatories that don't bother your stomache.

[The Number 1 Cubs Fan @ Dec 4th 2008 10:19PM]

Instantly, I think iPod. Just, somehow.

[diego cruz @ Dec 12th 2008 7:27PM]

nanosocer 2009 for the wii, xbox 360, and playstation 3

coming to stores near you