Nanotechnology

Amazing new inventions with nano technologies.
Chemists at New York University and China's
Nanjing University have developed a two-armed
nanorobotic device that can manipulate
molecules within a device built from DNA. The
device is described in the latest issue of
the journal Nature Nanotechnology. "The aim
of nanotechnology is to put specific atomic
and molecular species where we want them and
when we want them there," said NYU Chemistry
Professor Nadrian Seeman, one of the
co-authors. "This is a programmable unit that
allows researchers to capture and maneuver
patterns on a scale that is unprecedented."
The device is approximately 150 x 50 x 8
nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a
meter. Put another way, if a nanometer were
the size of a normal apple, measuring
approximately 10 centimeters in diameter, a
normal apple, enlarged proportionally, would
be roughly the size of the earth. The creation
enhances Seeman's earlier work-a single
nanorobotic arm, completed in 2006, marking the
first time scientists had been able to employ a
functional nanotechnology device within a DNA
array. The new, two-armed device employs DNA
origami, a method unveiled in 2006 that uses a
few hundred short DNA strands to direct a very
long DNA strand to form structures that adopt
any desired shape. These shapes, approximately
100 nanometers in diameter, are eight times
larger and three times more complex than what
could be created within a simple crystalline
DNA array. As with Seeman's previous creation,
the two-armed nanorobotic device enables the
creation of new DNA structures, thereby
potentially serving as a factory for assembling
the building blocks of new materials. With this
capability, it has the potential to develop new
synthetic fibers, advance the encryption of
information, and improve DNA-scaffolded
computer assembly.