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Manchester team creates “world’s first” molecular robots

C

ChouGoku

Member
A team at the University of Manchester has created what it claims are the world's first molecular robots.

The tiny devices – which are a millionth of a millimetre in size and made up of just 150 carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms – can be programmed to manipulate individual molecules, a capability that could have applications ranging from new drug advancement to the development of a host of miniaturised systems.
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The robots operate by carrying out chemical reactions in special solutions which can then be controlled and programmed by scientists to perform the basic tasks.
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Commenting on potential applications of the technology Prof Leigh said: ”Molecular robotics represents the ultimate in the miniaturisation of machinery. Our aim is to design and make the smallest machines possible. This is just the start but we anticipate that within 10 to 20 years molecular robots will begin to be used to build molecules and materials on assembly lines in molecular factories."
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This is probably the beginning of a grey goo like "device" depending on how fast the technology can grow. Exciting shit though


https://www.theengineer.co.uk/manche...ecular-robots/
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
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This is pretty impressive.
 
C

ChouGoku

Member
zma1013 said:
This is no small feat of engineering... or is it?
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This may be the beginning of doing something like turning the air around you into a anything. Granted thats way more advanced than this here. This would still be great for surgeries or putting robots in hard to operate places
 
C

ChouGoku

Member
PSqueak said:
Correct me if im wrong, but wouldn't it need to be the size of an atom for grey goo to be a possibility?
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They would just have to be able to manipulate atoms right? This thing is assembling molecules so it is pretty close, if not there on a very small scale.
 
S

slider

Member
Come and fix me little robots. I'd prefer an injection or pill rather than a suppository though.

Expect practical deployment is a long way off but still exciting.
 
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