Scientists have assembled the world’s smallest house by using a combination of robotics and nanotechnology. The micro-house even has a door that a house mite can fit through.
The house has been devised, according to Engadget, as a proof-of-concept study from a nanorobotics team based at the Femto-ST Institute in Besancon, France. The researchers successfully assembled a new microbotics system termed the μRobotex nanofactory. By deploying tiny robots the researchers can construct microstructures within a large vacuum chamber. Within this they can fix components onto optical fiber tips at a level of nanometer accuracy.
The idea behind the microhouse construction was in order to demonstrate that the latest advances in optical sensing technologies can be used to manipulate ion guns (via gas injection), electron beams and finely controlled robotic piloting, so that a variety of different constructs can be rendered. As an example of the complexity and tiny scale of operations, the ion gun focuses on an area only 300 micrometers by 300 micrometers so that it can to fire ions onto the fiber tip and silica membrane.
This forms part of the area of lab-on-fiber technologies. In the early stages of this technology there were no robotic actuators available for for nanoassembly, which limited what engineers could achieve in terms of creating microstructures at the nano-scale. A recent advance in miniaturtized-sensing elements has addressed this. These sensing elements can be fitted onto fiber tips, allowing scientists to manipulate different components.
The technology allows enables scientists to insert optical fibers as thin as a strand of human hair into previously inaccessible locations such as jet engines, to detect radiation levels, or into human blood vessels to detect viral particles.
Image Credit: FEMTO-ST Institute
News This Week
New study suggests a way to rejuvenate the immune system
Stimulating the liver to produce some of the signals of the thymus can reverse age-related declines in T-cell populations and enhance response to vaccination. As people age, their immune system function declines. T cell [...]
Nerve Damage Can Disrupt Immunity Across the Entire Body
A single nerve injury can quietly reshape the immune system across the entire body. Preclinical research from McGill University suggests that nerve injuries may lead to long-lasting changes in the immune system, and these [...]
Fake Science Is Growing Faster Than Legitimate Research, New Study Warns
New research reveals organized networks linking paper mills, intermediaries, and compromised academic journals Organized scientific fraud is becoming increasingly common, ranging from fabricated research to the buying and selling of authorship and citations, according [...]
Scientists Unlock a New Way to Hear the Brain’s Hidden Language
Scientists can finally hear the brain’s quietest messages—unlocking the hidden code behind how neurons think, decide, and remember. Scientists have created a new protein that can capture the incoming chemical signals received by brain [...]
Does being infected or vaccinated first influence COVID-19 immunity?
A new study analyzing the immune response to COVID-19 in a Catalan cohort of health workers sheds light on an important question: does it matter whether a person was first infected or first vaccinated? [...]
We May Never Know if AI Is Conscious, Says Cambridge Philosopher
As claims about conscious AI grow louder, a Cambridge philosopher argues that we lack the evidence to know whether machines can truly be conscious, let alone morally significant. A philosopher at the University of [...]
AI Helped Scientists Stop a Virus With One Tiny Change
Using AI, researchers identified one tiny molecular interaction that viruses need to infect cells. Disrupting it stopped the virus before infection could begin. Washington State University scientists have uncovered a method to interfere with a key [...]
Deadly Hospital Fungus May Finally Have a Weakness
A deadly, drug-resistant hospital fungus may finally have a weakness—and scientists think they’ve found it. Researchers have identified a genetic process that could open the door to new treatments for a dangerous fungal infection [...]
Leave A Comment