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The World's Smallest Car

starexplorer writes "Start your Nano-engines? LiveScience.com is reporting that researchers at Rice University have designed the world's smallest car that is no more than 4 nanometers across. It has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs. Why do it? The team wants to build a fleet of nanotrucks to carry atoms and molecules around minature factories." So it's not exactly self-powered, but it rolls. It's a start!

38 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Good idea, too small for me by the-amazing-blob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sorry I'm late coming home, honey. I lost the car again.

    1. Re:Good idea, too small for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Lost the car? Imagine misplacing the keys...

    2. Re:Good idea, too small for me by drpimp · · Score: 3, Funny

      Unless of course it comes with nanospinners.. Then we're talkin'

      --
      -- Brought to you by Carl's JR
    3. Re:Good idea, too small for me by operagost · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm pretty sure I can fit 19" rims onto it. And a fart pipe.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  2. Only 4 nanometers across... by d3ac0n · · Score: 5, Funny

    And yet it still holds 10 clowns! Go figure.

    --
    Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
  3. Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    is this a perfect solution for men that have really large reproductive organs?

  4. Compact car by Crixus · · Score: 3, Funny

    So how does this redefine the phrase COMPACT CAR?

    --
    Ignore Alien Orders
    1. Re:Compact car by slashname3 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh great! Now half the parking lot will be marked off for nano-car parking. Had enough trouble parking the hummer in the compact car spots now I have to jocky it into half a billion nano-car spots. :)

    2. Re:Compact car by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Funny

      So how does this redefine the phrase COMPACT CAR?

      You mean it's not an instruction. Whoops.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  5. Been there.... by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 2, Funny
    Talk about re-inventing the wheel!

    Sheesh!

    --
    And the brethren went away edified.
  6. A great day... by Aenema · · Score: 5, Funny

    for the small people that helped make such a thing possible

  7. Re:Rice U? by bersl2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Speaking of rice, where can you get Type-R stickers and spinning rims that small?

  8. yeah, but the hard part is... by bobalu · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...making a really small Midas muffler shop.

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    The revolution will NOT be televised.
  9. lazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    you're telling me that they're too lazy to carry something that freakin small?

  10. One question by Auckerman · · Score: 4, Funny

    How many microns/nanogram does it get?

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    Burn Hollywood Burn
    1. Re:One question by mbstone · · Score: 3, Funny

      It depends. YMMV.

    2. Re:One question by mindriot · · Score: 2, Funny

      No no no.

      It's YÅMV, of course. Your Ångströmage may vary.

  11. I give it six months by BandwidthHog · · Score: 4, Funny

    Till they add an SUV to the lineup.

    --

    Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
  12. Uh huh by connah0047 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can see the science team going to the board of directors:

    BoD: What's the problem?
    Scientists: Well, we need to be able to move atoms and molecules around in precise ways.
    BoD: How can we help?
    Scientists: We need some funding to build little, tiny trucks to carry them around in.
    [long pause]
    BoD: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! No really guys, what did you need?

  13. Re:I feel humbled by forkazoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hell, no. I feel like a giant super man that can pick up a million cars with his bare hands, and knock over thousands of cars with a breath. How the hell is that humbling?

  14. maybe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    they're under-compensating for their huge penises?

  15. Re:Heh. by unr_stuart · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why do Texans insist upon finding every place possible to put an engine?

  16. I can see it now by Omnieiunium · · Score: 3, Funny

    Pimp my nano car.

  17. Pic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's a pic:

              .

    I hope they don't make the same mistake Ford made, and only offer it in black.

    -AC

    1. Re:Pic by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 2, Funny

      They already offer it in white aswell.
      Here's a pic, with the car circled:

                  o

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      ^_^
  18. Re:Heh. by Robocoastie · · Score: 2, Funny

    proves once again that people with high fallooten pieces of paper from universities will do anything to justify spending half their life and income in school.

  19. Re:I feel humbled by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 5, Funny
    Try changing the tire, super man. ;)

    --
    "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  20. Re:Sensationalist journalism by dirtsurfer · · Score: 3, Funny

    See, this is the problem with nanotechnology. No matter what great advances you make, there are always so many people who just want to split hairs.

    *ba-dum-dum-pshh*

  21. Re:I feel humbled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Coming soon... the worlds first nanosized "nizmo" "type-R" "Crane Cams" stickers.

  22. The biggest problem by Harker · · Score: 2, Funny

    The ground clearance sucks.

    H

    --
    When VCR's are outlawed, only outlaws will have VCR's.
  23. Re:Rice U? by Deltaspectre · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just stick a chromium atom on there for the rims

    No one will know the difference

    --
    My UID is prime... is yours?
  24. EPA Estimates by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sadly, it was designed by GM, and so only gets 12 miles per gallon.

  25. Re:Rice U? by slashname3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    why an unpowered car?

    Because that darn intern lost the pistons and camshaft for the motor. He's still looking for them.

  26. short-sightedness by UESMark · · Score: 4, Funny

    It is so typical that when developing the industrial nano-cities of the future they chose to develop nano-cars instead of a sensible atomic mass transit system. If this policy continues the consumption of nano-gas will raise nano-oil prices so high that soon we will have to invade nano-arabia. I for one will continue to endorse nano-carpooling and the use of nano-bikes whenever possible,

  27. Package by ozTravman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Okay so guys with small penises buy big cars.... Finally they have made a car suitable for me!

  28. Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university? by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 2, Funny

    And little tiny Jesus fish. Followed by the little tiny Darwin fish.... which will actually be real bacteria that will consume the entire car.

    --

    kurzweil_freak

    5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

    Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.

  29. Re:Directional Friction Reduction? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You may well have done lots of nano work but you still dont realise that you don't have to press return at the end of each line!

    Doh!

  30. Eight thimble-sized cylinders by mortong · · Score: 3, Funny

    Bah, that's nothing. Wake me up when they make a little blue dune buggy.