A group of
scientists from Columbia University managed to invent extremely small spider
robots measuring about 4nm across. If you wish to compare, these nano
robots are about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
It would be interesting to note that
the spider robots are made of DNA molecules. They can walk, turn right
and left and create their own products. Developed at the molecular level, the
robots represent DNA walkers, featuring legs to walk autonomously, though very
slow - about 100nm in 30 meters - 1 hour.
In order to observe the spider
robots scientists used atomic force microscopy. The
molecular robots managed to attract a lot of attention due to the fact that
they can be programmed to sense the environment and react accordingly. For
example, they can detect disease markers on a cell surface, identify
whether it is a cancerous one and then bring a compound to kill it, if
necessary, reports Daily Mail.
Researchers consider that their
latest invention is an important step in molecular robotics. Although
today this field cannot boast many great inventions, scientists and engineers
believe that in the near future it could become one of the most important
industries that could create devices for various medical applications.
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