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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!

33 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.

    --
    The revolution will NOT be televised.
  9. One question by Auckerman · · Score: 4, Funny

    How many microns/nanogram does it get?

    --

    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.

  10. 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?
  11. 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?

  12. 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?

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

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

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

    Pimp my nano car.

  15. 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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      ^_^
  16. 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.

  17. 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
  18. 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*

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

    The ground clearance sucks.

    H

    --
    When VCR's are outlawed, only outlaws will have VCR's.
  20. EPA Estimates by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2, Funny

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

  21. 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.

  22. 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,

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

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

  24. 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.

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

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