I’ve been meaning to post this for a long time.  Last month I was reading Archfarm’s most recent fascicle (Incidentally, I think I heard of these guys via BLDGBLOG).  It’s all about nanoscale architecture and what’s going on there.  Here are some highlights:

1) Researchers at Rice have attached a motor to a nanocar (that’s a photo above).  The motor rotates when it’s hit by light; it’s unclear though whether the car can actually drive.

2) Scientists at Dartmouth have created a nanorobot that walks in a centipede-like fashion.  It takes thousands of nanometer steps per second; 200 of the robots would form a line across the middle of an M&M candy.

3) A Dutch team has also created a chemical nanomotor.  It uses four separate reactions to turn the motor through 360 degrees.  Unfortunately it takes about 128 hours for the motor to rotate-but the concept is proven!

4) New York University’s scientists are trying to create DNA molecules that can be controlled to deliver molecules to specific locations and assemble electronics.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in more info, try checking out Nanoarchitecture.  Alternatively, if nano’s a little to small for you, but you’re into custom-made, bottoms-up design, check out Fab@Home to be the first on your block with a home fabber.