Walking Molecule Now Carries Packages

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."

Comments

Energy Source?

[eluusive]

What powers this thing?

Re:Energy Source?

[William_Lee]

What powers this thing?

From a previous article on the walker:

"Activated by heat or the nudge of a scanning tunneling microscope tip, DTA will pull up one foot, put down the other, and thus walk in a straight line across a flat surface. The planted foot not only supplies support but also keeps the body of the molecule from veering or stumbling off course."

Re:Energy Source?

[ThePopeLayton]

Probably ATP, which powers about 90% of the biochemical energy dependent reactions.
Some reactions require GTP, CTP, or UTP. These other nucleotide tri-phosphates are used much less and only for very specific functions, so it could be one of these but I would bet against them. Other possible sources of energy are: concentration gradients, membrane potentials, pH gradients, etc... There are many many different sources of energy in the biochemical world, however for most biological reactions ATP is the energy source of choice.

Re:Energy Source?

[TapeCutter]

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.

Enjoy It While It Lasts

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll unionize & all your research will be useless and futile against their nano-unions.

Re:Enjoy It While It Lasts

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

>They'll unionize & all your research will be useless and futile against their nano-unions.

Gives new meaning to the phrase, "All your base (pairs) are belong to us."

perfect for the mob

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of the organized crime opportunities! Yeah stuff in the warehouse does really just walk off.
Though if walkers get a collective consciousness it would self-organized crime.

Star Wars, Episode 7...

[Excelcia]

"Cutbacks have forced us to introduce the Imperial Nanowalker"

Re:It's only a matter of time

[ThePopeLayton]

you could always look in between the legs

Next step...

[CODiNE]

Teaching them to drive nano-trucks and get signatures on a clip-board.

only 2 molecules?

[Zeek40]

So what's the big deal? I can carry a lot more than two C02 molecules around and make turns and my parents are still kicking themselves for creating me, why should these scientists be proud of their inferior creation?

Re:only 2 molecules?

[MarkGriz]

"So what's the big deal? I can carry a lot more than two C02 molecules around and make turns and my parents are still kicking themselves for creating me, why should these scientists be proud of their inferior creation?"

Apparently, this molecule moved out of the basement some time ago.

Lemmings

[AutopsyReport]

For the non-scientific among us, think Lemmings, only less suicidal.

Re:It's only a matter of time

[Anonymous Coward]

It's carrying packages---must have been shopping = she

If it has a package = he

When it absolutely, positively...

[Anonymous Coward]

...can take millions of years to be there on time and weighs less then a very small molecule, let University of California at Riverside work for you.

Re:Where's the power supply?

[techno-vampire]

If you have complaints about the article, why did you post it?

Small joke . . .

[shrike99]

"What did the first nano-walker water molecule say to the second nano-walker water molecule who'd just tripped while carrying his load of CO2?" "Up and ATOM Mister!". (sorry. been a long day)

New tag

[techno-vampire]

I've started a new tag, just for this article: piquepaille. The idea is to warn everybody that it's Just Another Slashvertizement.

Re:New tag

[shawn(at)fsu]

Actually if you would have taken the time to mouseover the link you would have seen that it didn't go to his blog or column, it went to the university's website. Not that I'm a huge Roland fan, but your statement is just flat out wrong.

it's a slinky!

[garyrich]

What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs
and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing!
Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky,
it's fun, it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky, it's fun,
It's a wonderful toy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy.

Re:it's a slinky!

[dontbgay]

Totally OT, but it's funny that I know the Log Song from Ren and Stimpy.. and I don't know the words to the Slinky commercial.

Those interested in Nanotech...

[chris_eineke]

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.

Re:Where's the power supply?

[Fescen9]

Perhaps he commented on his own story with some half-baked comment/question hoping to generate even more traffic to his well known ad site, therefore generating even more revenue. This guy has quite the history on slashdot, look into it...

How heavy of a load?

[HTH NE1]

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?

Re:BOOM

[nizo]

Yeah I can see it now:

- Design lil nanowalkers
- Pave path directly to target with copper. Design another lil nanowalker that walks in front of the rest, clearing debris out of the way.
- Set the one carrying flammable stuff going, and wait a few thousand years for it to get to the destination. Have a few flaming nano-walkers to let go a few minutes after you let the first one go.
- Multiple by a few million for an explosion that people can actually see.

If this doesn't say "DoD grant" nothing does.

Re:Where's the power supply?

[Tim C]

The problem a lot of people have with Roland is:

1) For a while a year or two ago, it seemed like every other story posted was submitted by him
2) He used to always link *only* to his own blog, not to the actual article in question
3) He (used to?) sells his consulting services on how to drive traffic to your website
4) Despite numerous complaints and comments, neither he nor the admins were listening to us

Now they're not necessarily all his fault, but all together it lead to an awful lot of speculation, including about whether or not he was paying for his stories to be posted. It was this uproar, when the admins finally took notice, that lead to the "nofollow" attribute being added to the submittor's URL when a story is posted.

I can't blame him for shamelessly seeking a little bit of publicity on Slashdot in order to make some money with his blog.

That's just it though - for a while, he was shamelessly seeking - and getting - a lot of publicity. It started to look an awful lot like advertising to a lot of people, some of which pay not to get adverts here.