Progress in Nanotechnology: A Nanoscale 'Assembly Line'

[LongTomH]

I got the link to this article and image from the CRNano blog:

It may look like some diagrams and a few blobs, but what you're seeing here is nothing short of a nanotech revolution. Four nanorobots made of DNA are interacting on an "assembly line" in order to build a tiny device.

Today in Nature, a group of researchers announced they'd successfully operated the first assembly line populated entirely by nanobots. The bots in question are molecular machines made from strands of DNA, and each one has four "feet" that walk on a specially-prepared surface covered in chemicals that direct the bot's motion. It also has three "arms" to carry cargo - in this case various sizes of gold particles. These gold particles can bind together into eight different products.

In their experiment, the scientists succeeded in guiding a nanobot to pick up the three gold particles, each held by other bots. It walked up to each bot, grabbed the gold cargo, and moved on to the next bot to do the same thing.

Chris Phoenix at the Committee for Responsible Nanotechnology blog comments:

This is a major breakthrough. It's not the first programmable assembly device based on DNA - Seeman did that a few years ago, with a machine that was built of DNA, programmed by DNA, and could build one of four different DNA strands. But this one is a lot more complex and modular and flexible, and feels a lot more robotic.

Putting this in context, this is a major step toward a true nanofactory that manufactures macro-scale products by manipulating individual molecules with atomic precision.

Dr. Eric Drexler, the father of modern molecular nanotechnology also comments on this development on his blog: Metamodern:

As a bonus, the wording of the C&EN report gives me an opportunity to remind readers that the idea of constructing things “one atom at a time” is based on a misconception, serving as a common but dangerous shorthand for “atomically precise fabrication”. The mistaken idea that these are equivalent has caused endless difficulties, because chemists recognize that juggling individual atoms makes no chemical sense.

The Committee for Responsible Nanotechnology blog and Eric Drexler's Metamodern blog are the go-to places for up-to-date info on progress in nanotechnology.

[phantom power]

1. Nice.

:thumbsup:

[tridim]

2. Wow! Programmed by DNA!

Taken along with the news that we've just created artificial life in the lab, this seems really big.

Fundie freakout in 3,2,1...