
Gears about 10 micrometres broad constructed from etched silicon, considered with an electron microscope
Gan Wang / Myfab Chalmers
Minuscule gears which are thinner than a human hair and powered via gentle may well be used to review human cells or energy tiny, complicated robots.
Equipment programs incessantly battle to paintings at a measurement under a 10th of a millimetre, in regards to the thickness of a median piece of paper, as a result of it’s tricky to miniaturise the facility programs that force them. Some easy programs, equivalent to rotors constructed from DNA, will also be constructed at nanoscales, however those are bespoke and…