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Bacteria Propel Themselves with Slime Jets

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ka-WHOOSH dept.

galactic_grub writes "Scientists have discovered that some bacteria propel themselves along using tiny jets of slime. According to this story on NewScientistTech, the researchers previously thought the slime was a lubricant. They believe the same technique could be used to move nano-devices around."

1 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Eating nanobots? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're assuming propellers work the same at nano scale. They don't.

    Remember, this is a realm of counter-intuitive phenomena that you can't just "gut feel" your way around.

    Odds are good that if bacteria do it, then it's an extraordinarily efficient way to do things, and we should seriously consider it. Remember that
    a) they evolve much faster than we do
    b) are much older (predating eukaryotes by 2 billion years or so)
    c) they live at the micro/nano scale boundary.

    Call me when you've got that kind of experience under your belt ;)