While this is a car that can never carry a passenger, the work of a group of Dutch scientists is a real milestone in the annals of nanotechnology. The small car is made by a handful of atoms, with four-wheel mode extensions, advancing a few billionths of a meter each time it receives an electrical pulse train. It may not have immediate practical application, but it is a testament of what nanotechnology can do today.
The automotive industry is very slowly-migrating to hybrid or electric cars. Each week we see some progress that brings us one step closer to the day on which all the cars belonging to that category, although there is still a long way to go. A group of Dutch scientists belonging to the University of Twente, wanted to use the possibilities offered by nanotechnology to create a small (very small!) Car from a handful of atoms, capable of traveling through a makeshift metal by road to brief pulses of electricity.
The work, although it constitutes a scientific curiosity, there is now a practical or commercial application. It just shows what are the potential benefits of nanotechnology today. The car in question is a molecule designed as four "extensions" that serve as "tires" and that can only work at extremely low temperatures, near absolute zero. The energy required to move the car is provided by a scanning tunneling microscope, a device through a fine metal tip generates a bias current of electrons moving back and forth through the tunnel effect. Upon receiving this stream, areas of the molecule acting as wheels deform and drive forward. To proceed you need to receive an electrical pulse train, and during the experiments showed that you can scroll up to six billionths of a meter each time it receives electrical impulses 10. Tibor Kudernac, head of research, knowing that his work is little more than a curiosity, has said that
Just look around to see that in all biological systems there are a number of molecular machines or motors formed from proteins that perform very specific functions. For example, the contraction of our muscles exists because protein-based motors. This electric vehicle is only the simple demonstration that we can achieve something similar and, therefore, is an example able to motivate other scientists to make a practical application.
It's hard to imagine what could be the application of this principle is successfully converted to a millionaire inventor, but we are confident that in not too long we will see in the stores operated devices thanks to the work of the team.
The automotive industry is very slowly-migrating to hybrid or electric cars. Each week we see some progress that brings us one step closer to the day on which all the cars belonging to that category, although there is still a long way to go. A group of Dutch scientists belonging to the University of Twente, wanted to use the possibilities offered by nanotechnology to create a small (very small!) Car from a handful of atoms, capable of traveling through a makeshift metal by road to brief pulses of electricity.
The work, although it constitutes a scientific curiosity, there is now a practical or commercial application. It just shows what are the potential benefits of nanotechnology today. The car in question is a molecule designed as four "extensions" that serve as "tires" and that can only work at extremely low temperatures, near absolute zero. The energy required to move the car is provided by a scanning tunneling microscope, a device through a fine metal tip generates a bias current of electrons moving back and forth through the tunnel effect. Upon receiving this stream, areas of the molecule acting as wheels deform and drive forward. To proceed you need to receive an electrical pulse train, and during the experiments showed that you can scroll up to six billionths of a meter each time it receives electrical impulses 10. Tibor Kudernac, head of research, knowing that his work is little more than a curiosity, has said that
Just look around to see that in all biological systems there are a number of molecular machines or motors formed from proteins that perform very specific functions. For example, the contraction of our muscles exists because protein-based motors. This electric vehicle is only the simple demonstration that we can achieve something similar and, therefore, is an example able to motivate other scientists to make a practical application.
It's hard to imagine what could be the application of this principle is successfully converted to a millionaire inventor, but we are confident that in not too long we will see in the stores operated devices thanks to the work of the team.
