As if ripped off the screen from a not-so-classic 1960s science-run-amok flick, the Daily Mail has reported that scientists have created microscopic “spider” robots out of DNA molecules that can operate at the nano-scale level, cleaning arteries or building computer components on a nano-scale assembly line.
The ground-breaking devices outlined in the journal Nature, could one day lead to armies of surgeon robots that could clean human arteries or build computer components. In one of the projects a team from New York’s Columbia University created a spider-bot just four nanometers across. This is about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
To watch the spider in motion, the researchers used atomic force microscopy which showed the molecular robots following four different paths. Molecular robots have drawn huge interest because of the allure of programming them to sense their environment and react to it.
For instance, they could note disease markers on a cell surface, decide that the cell is cancerous and needs to be destroyed and then deliver a compound to kill it. Lloyd Smith, from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, talked about the significance of this advance in a commentary also published by Nature:
“This is the first time that systems of nano-machines, rather than individual devices have been used to perform operations, constituting a crucial advance in the evolution of DNA technology.”
Nearly £6 billion (or about 9 billion US dollars) is being invested in research and development of nano products worldwide, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, which tracks environmental and health concerns arising from the new technology.
