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Walking Molecule Now Carries Packages

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the delivery-in-20-minutes-or-it's-free dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Chemists from the University of California at Riverside designed two years ago a molecule which could move straight on a flat surface — a nano-walker if you wish. Now, they've found a way to force this walking molecule to carry packages. The nano-worker can now carry two CO2 molecules. And like yourself when you carry two heavy bags, this nano-worker is slower when it carries other molecules. The researchers think their discovery will lead to reliable ways of carrying molecules, an equivalent of the conveyor belts in today's factories."

4 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Energy Source? by eluusive · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What powers this thing?

    1. Re:Energy Source? by TapeCutter · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I know stuff all about this, but here is an awesome animation from some Harvard microbologists showing the molecules that are walking around the inside of every cell. Actually, running would be a better term since the animation is much slower than real life.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  2. Those interested in Nanotech... by chris_eineke · · Score: 4, Interesting

    should read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler. Roughly speaking, Drexler is the father of nanomanufacturing. I bought it on a whim when I read about him in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (of Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, In the the Beginning was the Command Line, and Snow Crash fame). Interesting times ahead.

    --
    "All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
  3. How heavy of a load? by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So, how many times its own atomic weight can one of these things carry? Basically, how heavy of a load can it take without breaking the chemical bonds in the molecule's legs? And can you spread the load across several of them?

    If you sprayed a bunch of them on the underside of a paperweight (in a way that assured uniform orientation), could it then walk off by itself?

    What is their horsepower equivalent?

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?