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Piecework at the nano assembly line: Electric fields drive nano-motors a 100,000 times faster than previous methods
Date:
January 19, 2018
Source:
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Summary:
Scientists have developed a novel electric propulsion technology for nanorobots. It allows molecular machines to move a hundred thousand times faster than with the biochemical processes used to date. This makes nanobots fast enough to do assembly line work in molecular factories.
Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a novel electric propulsion technology for nanorobots. Electric fields drive molecular machines to move a hundred thousand times faster than with the biochemical processes used to date. This makes nanorobots fast enough to do assembly line work in future molecular factories.
"By applying electric fields, we can arbitrarily rotate the arms in a plane," explains the head of the Chair of Physics of Synthetic Biological Systems at TU Munich. His team has for the first time managed to control nanobots electrically and has at the same time set a record: The new technique is 100,000 times faster than all previous methods.
One reason these molecular machines have not been deployed on a large scale to date is that they are too slow.
The new control technology is suited not only for moving around dye molecules and nanoparticles. The arms of the miniature robots can also apply force to molecules. These interactions can be utilized for diagnostics and in pharmaceutical development, emphasizes Simmel. "Nanobots are small and economical. Millions of them could work in parallel to look for specific substances in samples or to synthesize complex molecules -- not unlike an assembly line.
Ever since I read Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation I have been fascinated by the implications of nanobot technology. Seems we are now on the path to making those technologies a reality.
Its still in its infant stages but this is a marked advancement with significant implications.
It still needs a fast AI control method but even with slow programming it opens the possibilities of rendering 3d printers obsolete.
Consider this possible future scenario;
You by a Nano Assembler Chamber
you unpack it and hook it up to your computer
You download a pattern, insert the recipe ingredients
you turn the machine on and it starts constructing the object.
You use it and get tired of it.
You put it back into the machine and pick a different recipe
Add the ingredients the processor requires and it makes the new object
using the molecules from the old object.
The leftover ingredients go into an internal storage catch-all
Ingredients that can be reused for future projects
With a fast AI controller, you wouldn't need the ingredient packs - you wouldn't need a pattern, you just tell it what you want it to make and add a bag of material and it rearranges the atoms to create the molecules it need to complete the project.
It can also be used as a recycler of anything because the AI directs the assemblers to break apart the molecules into atoms.
Date:
January 19, 2018
Source:
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Summary:
Scientists have developed a novel electric propulsion technology for nanorobots. It allows molecular machines to move a hundred thousand times faster than with the biochemical processes used to date. This makes nanobots fast enough to do assembly line work in molecular factories.
Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a novel electric propulsion technology for nanorobots. Electric fields drive molecular machines to move a hundred thousand times faster than with the biochemical processes used to date. This makes nanorobots fast enough to do assembly line work in future molecular factories.
"By applying electric fields, we can arbitrarily rotate the arms in a plane," explains the head of the Chair of Physics of Synthetic Biological Systems at TU Munich. His team has for the first time managed to control nanobots electrically and has at the same time set a record: The new technique is 100,000 times faster than all previous methods.
One reason these molecular machines have not been deployed on a large scale to date is that they are too slow.
The new control technology is suited not only for moving around dye molecules and nanoparticles. The arms of the miniature robots can also apply force to molecules. These interactions can be utilized for diagnostics and in pharmaceutical development, emphasizes Simmel. "Nanobots are small and economical. Millions of them could work in parallel to look for specific substances in samples or to synthesize complex molecules -- not unlike an assembly line.
Ever since I read Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation I have been fascinated by the implications of nanobot technology. Seems we are now on the path to making those technologies a reality.
Its still in its infant stages but this is a marked advancement with significant implications.
It still needs a fast AI control method but even with slow programming it opens the possibilities of rendering 3d printers obsolete.
Consider this possible future scenario;
You by a Nano Assembler Chamber
you unpack it and hook it up to your computer
You download a pattern, insert the recipe ingredients
you turn the machine on and it starts constructing the object.
You use it and get tired of it.
You put it back into the machine and pick a different recipe
Add the ingredients the processor requires and it makes the new object
using the molecules from the old object.
The leftover ingredients go into an internal storage catch-all
Ingredients that can be reused for future projects
With a fast AI controller, you wouldn't need the ingredient packs - you wouldn't need a pattern, you just tell it what you want it to make and add a bag of material and it rearranges the atoms to create the molecules it need to complete the project.
It can also be used as a recycler of anything because the AI directs the assemblers to break apart the molecules into atoms.
