May 17th, 2005
A researcher at UC Berkeley has created a nanoscale motor, pictured in an electron microscope timeseries. David Pescovitz writes:
The entire electric motor is about 500 nanometers across, 300 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
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This entry was posted by Jeffrey Warren
on Tuesday, May 17th, 2005 at 8:25 am and is filed under Technology.
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May 17th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
so, what are the implications of a nanoscale motor? (i.e. how will this going to change our world over the next few years?)
May 18th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
imagine one that can be used to propel a nanoscale device through a liquid – it could hypothetically be “driven” through bodily fluids, or even maneuvered inside a cell!
Other applications might be in display technology, where a movable “pixel” could have different reflective properties on different sides, allowing for a flat, paper-thin display of practically infinite resolution.
I did research for nanoscale devices a few summers ago, and such machines are capabale of incredible feats already – for example sorting a drop of blood into its parts, red and white blood cells, platelets, and plasma, all on a chip so tiny it’s barely visible.