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Nanoresearchers Invent Tiny Chemical "Brain" |
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Written by Daniel
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Monday, 17 March 2008 |
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Nanoresearchers Invent Tiny Chemical "Brain"
Jason Mick (Blog) - March 14, 2008 3:31 PM
DailyTech Genius new nanoresearch seeks to one day take over the world of research with a control method for nanorobots, multi-instruction CPUs
t seems like every week scientists invent new nanomachines. Nanomachines, tiny machines built on the atomic scale, help to cure disease through such functions as cancer detection, cancer destruction, and providing a biological power backup to batteries in pacemakers or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs).
While dozens of useful nanodevices have been developed, one of the biggest challenges remains that various nanodevices cannot be controlled in mass and control of individual devices remains a rigorous process. Current control of nanodevices is obviously not applicable to in-vivo (in the living human body), scenarios -- nanodevices remain unable to activate on their own, and thus are essentially useless without a means of remote control.
Researchers with the International Center for Young Scientists in Tsukuba, Japan have taken the first step towards overcoming this obstacle. They have invented what has been dubbed a "nano-brain". The research is presented in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The tiny chemical brain is only 2 nm across. It is composed of 17 molecules of duroquinone, a cyclic (ring) molecule with 4 methyl groups and two keto-groups attached. Sixteen of the molecules are attached by hydrogen bonds to a single central molecule. By changing the orientation of the methyl groups attached, through electron scanning tunneling microscopy or other means, researchers are able to remotely control the central molecule, which switches the states of the surrounding 16 molecules. Each of the attached molecules has four different settings, so a total of 416 combinations are possible, leading to about four billion unique possible outcomes. [DailyTech...] [Comments...] |
