Researchers build nanoscale rotary apparatus using tight-fitting 3D DNA components (w/ Video)

Scientists dream of building ever smaller motorized

devices that could putter around inside the human body delivering medicines to ailing parts, toxins to tumors or simply serving as health monitors, but alas, such devices have not yet come to fruition—but they may be getting closer. In this new effort, the team in Germany has built a device based on synthetic DNA parts—it mimics, somewhat, the activities of flagella, the tiny arm-like appendages bacteria use as paddles to move around. It is only 40 nanometers tall but includes three main parts, a crank that spins, an axle bearing and a container to hold the other two parts together.

It does not yet have a power source, thus it cannot be called a motorized device just yet, instead, it can move around due to thermal energy which creates colliding water molecules which in turn causes the crank to turn—the team cannot control the direction of the device yet either, but believe they may have a solution sometime in the near future. They plan to test ideas using laser heat, ion flow or even chemical reactions to cause the crank to turn, and hopefully allow for controlling direction. If they succeed such a tiny motorized device would be useful in more than just medical applications—it could also possibly be used to drive chemical syntheses or to pump molecules across barriers.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2016-02-nanoscale-rotary-apparatus-tight-fitting-3d.html#jCp