The World's Smallest Car

starexplorer writes "Start your Nano-engines? LiveScience.com is reporting that researchers at Rice University have designed the world's smallest car that is no more than 4 nanometers across. It has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs. Why do it? The team wants to build a fleet of nanotrucks to carry atoms and molecules around minature factories." So it's not exactly self-powered, but it rolls. It's a start!

Good idea, too small for me

[the-amazing-blob]

Sorry I'm late coming home, honey. I lost the car again.

Re:Good idea, too small for me

[Anonymous Coward]

Lost the car? Imagine misplacing the keys...

Re:Good idea, too small for me

[drpimp]

Unless of course it comes with nanospinners.. Then we're talkin'

Re:Good idea, too small for me

[operagost]

I'm pretty sure I can fit 19" rims onto it. And a fart pipe.

Re:Good idea, too small for me

[bedroll]

Perhaps you should wait until GM comes out with the Nano Hummer, the nano truck that's as spacious as a Geo Metro.

Re:Good idea, too small for me

[PsychicX]

So, it seems to me only a matter of time before we create miniature factories, which can create miniature models of miniature factories.

Heh.

[Meagermanx]

From the too-much-time-on-their-hands dept.

Re:Heh.

[unr_stuart]

Why do Texans insist upon finding every place possible to put an engine?

Re:Heh.

[Robocoastie]

proves once again that people with high fallooten pieces of paper from universities will do anything to justify spending half their life and income in school.

"Heh" is right. This is just hype...

[msauve]

A "car," to most people, is something which is self propelled. Maybe this is the world's smallest skateboard?

Only 4 nanometers across...

[d3ac0n]

And yet it still holds 10 clowns! Go figure.

Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

is this a perfect solution for men that have really large reproductive organs?

Compact car

[Crixus]

So how does this redefine the phrase COMPACT CAR?

Re:Compact car

[slashname3]

Oh great! Now half the parking lot will be marked off for nano-car parking. Had enough trouble parking the hummer in the compact car spots now I have to jocky it into half a billion nano-car spots. :)

Re:Compact car

[ozmanjusri]

So how does this redefine the phrase COMPACT CAR?

You mean it's not an instruction. Whoops.

all good

[OneArmedMan]

but how many clowns can you fit in one ?

Rice U?

[killercoder]

Does the car scribble your name on a grain of rice too? My first impression was this had to be a joke. After careful thought I've come to the conclusion its a little ahead of its time. NanoTech is good for material sciences (right now), as it allows the design of materials from the atom up............I thought NanoTech as a manufacturing/computing medium was a LONG way away - if so - why an unpowered car?

Re:Rice U?

[bersl2]

Speaking of rice, where can you get Type-R stickers and spinning rims that small?

Sensationalist journalism

[fireboy1919]

You know, there's a word for a vehicle that doesn't have an engine, or a bed, and is smaller than a car.

It's called a wagon.

Doesn't sound as cool, does it? But that's what it is, isn't it?

Rechargable nanomotors that don't break - that's what we need for this kind of thing. Its the holy grail for nanotech right now.

If you don't avoid all references to objects that move under their own power (and you're talking about nanotech), then you're sensationalizing the news. Its like saying "Fusion done in cold!" when you mean that someone built a fusion laser system in Anarctica. Obviously cold means something specific when its that close to the word "Fusion."

Keep up the sensationalism, and you can't get the point across when you come across something that's actually fantastic.

Re:Sensationalist journalism

[cloudmaster]

I was going to say that it's actually a trailer, but with no hitch, it's nothing more than a cart or wagon. Sigh. I'm gonna start asking people where the company car is when I need to move heavier equipment around the building...

Re:Sensationalist journalism

[dirtsurfer]

See, this is the problem with nanotechnology. No matter what great advances you make, there are always so many people who just want to split hairs.

*ba-dum-dum-pshh*

Re:Sensationalist journalism

[Leibel]

from dictionary.com [reference.com] 5. Archaic. A chariot, carriage, or cart. I think this qualifies, although maybe on a technicality. Surely if you put the worlds smallest motor [livescience.com] on it, you'd have the worlds smallest motor car. I think that it's not as sensasionalist as you make out.

world's smallest cart.

[Stephen Samuel]

I was going to call it the world's smallest cart. Close enough to 'car' to get people's attention, and more accurate. And it, in no way, demeans the accomplishment.

Re:Sensationalist journalism

[some guy I know]

You know, there's a word for a vehicle that doesn't have an engine, or a bed, and is smaller than a car.

It's called a wagon.

Actually, the terms are rather blurred.
For example, railroad dining cars are not self-powered, station wagons have an engine, and covered wagons had beds (or, at least, bedding).

One of the definitions of "car", from dictionary.com [reference.com], is "4-wheeled motor vehicle; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine".
Note the word "usually".
By stretching this definition, the "motor" could

Re:Sensationalist journalism

[Ced_Ex]

It's called a wagon.

Looks more like a skateboard to me.

Re:Sensationalist journalism

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

POKE 36879,8

Hey, another VIC-20 fan!!!

Re:Rice U?

[SteveAyre]

Simple. NanoTech for serious uses is still a way off. It won't occur overnight.

We'll get there by getting lots of little pieces of the puzzle. Eventually we'll have all the pieces and be able to use nano technology to do Cool Stuff(tm).

This is just one piece of that puzzle.

Re:Rice U?

[plover]

Nanotech has already hit the marketplace.

I'm too lazy to google for it, but there's a company selling a nanomotor coated window glass for office buildings. You can buy it today.

The idea is that the tiny motors rotate when powered by the sun. When the glass is dirty (spots from the rain, mineral deposits, bird "deposits", spider webs, etc.,) in a few hours the rotation will sweep the dirt from the glass. It's supposed to pay for itself by avoiding window-cleanings, especially on high-rise buildings.

And I believe someone is using something similar to make a nanotech-based fog-free snowmobile visor. If you've ever ridden a snowmobile for more than a few hundred yards, you're probably familiar with the fogging problem. The first guy to market with this will have a solid lock on a big pile of money.

And let's not forget our old buddy, DLP. While it's not technically "nanotech", it's still "microtech."

What I think is neatest about the glass treatments is that they have nothing to do with computers or even technology! Some creative person just came up with a damn clever idea. There will undoubtedly be more.

Re:Rice U?

[lowrydr310]

Don't forget the ! [slashdot.org]

Screw the anti-fog snowmobile shield. When will someone use nanotechnology (or any technology) to cure baldness? That's where the money's at.

Re:Rice U?

[slashname3]

why an unpowered car?

Because that darn intern lost the pistons and camshaft for the motor. He's still looking for them.

Been there....

[CaptainCarrot]

Talk about re-inventing the wheel!

Sheesh!

I feel humbled

[chrpai]

Can anyone else admit they feel humbled when they read things like this?

Re:I feel humbled

[forkazoo]

Hell, no. I feel like a giant super man that can pick up a million cars with his bare hands, and knock over thousands of cars with a breath. How the hell is that humbling?

Re:I feel humbled

[Dr Caleb]

Try changing the tire, super man. ;)

Re:I feel humbled

[slashdot.org]

Try changing the tire, super man. ;)

Wow, can you imagine the trouble you'd be in getting a flat at 65nm/h?

Re:I feel humbled

[IWorkForMorons]

Humbled? More like excited this stuff is actually coming true! Even more excited after reading the world's smallest refridgerator [livescience.com] article. I bet I can get my aging XP2200+ up to a good 10Ghz with that thing. Extreme overclocking, here I come!

Re:I feel humbled

[HungWeiLo]

Well, if penile size is inversely proportionate to car horsepower / size, then, yes, I am very very humbled.

A great day...

[Aenema]

for the small people that helped make such a thing possible

yeah, but the hard part is...

[bobalu]

...making a really small Midas muffler shop.

One question

[Auckerman]

How many microns/nanogram does it get?

Re:One question

[b0lt]

It doesn't.
The car is unpowered, and just rolls around.

Re:One question

[aminorex]

But one can easily imagine pushing such vehicles about using laser beams. A single laser can
push millions of little cars around, using spinning mirrors and judicious timing.

Re:One question

[Spit]

Look out, I think it just ran over your sense of humour particle.

Re:One question

[mbstone]

It depends. YMMV.

Re:One question

[mindriot]

No no no.

It's YÅMV, of course. Your Ångströmage may vary.

I give it six months

[BandwidthHog]

Till they add an SUV to the lineup.

Re:I give it six months

[slashdot.org]

Till they add an SUV to the lineup.

Yeah, with 20" dubs!

Directional Friction Reduction?

[jellomizer]

Could this be used to make materials that have significantly less friction going in one direction and more going the other. The possibilities are endless. Like Bar tables that when drinks are shifted across it can move around corners. and stop right at the customer. Cool

Re:Directional Friction Reduction?

[Compuser]

As someone who has done plenty of STM an nano work in his life,
I can tell you two things:
1. I do not believe they have proven the wheels roll. They think they
have proven it but their STM work is embarassingly bad
(for starters, clean Au-111 surface has herringbone reconstruction
which is not seen in their images, the car is not resolved with anything
close to atomic resolution, temperature drift is atrocious etc.)
2. The surface of gold is very "soft" even at room temperature. Heating
it to 100 C often is enough to restore herringbone reconstruction to
a mechanically randomized surface. By 200 C the surface is essentially
a liquid though gold's partial pressure is still negligible meaning
that this liquid does not yet evaporate. Everything I see in their
paper shows to me that the molecules do not roll, but rather diffuse
or surf along with the surface. Certainly many buckyballs are seen
near step edges, something that happens to all crap diffusing on the
surface because it is energetically favorable to assemble there.

In short, there is no evidence of science or even engineering here.
Slashdot bought into the PR of the kind of nano project that made
nanotechnology into a dirty word among the leading research groups
in the area. BTW, I am not doing STM research and am not planning
to so I am not speaking as a competitor. More like: this is why I
moved on from nano-work, so i don't have to deal with crap-meisters
like this.

Re:Directional Friction Reduction?

[nasor]

I also do "nano" work, and I wondered about this too. The problem with laying single molecules down on gold surfaces is that they tend to diffuse around the surface (or even sink into it) over time even at room temperature, and it happens much faster if the gold is heated. How do they know it's rolling?

Uh huh

[connah0047]

I can see the science team going to the board of directors:

BoD: What's the problem?
Scientists: Well, we need to be able to move atoms and molecules around in precise ways.
BoD: How can we help?
Scientists: We need some funding to build little, tiny trucks to carry them around in.
[long pause]
BoD: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! No really guys, what did you need?

Time to re-define the term...

[CptNerd]

Time to redefine the term "short-haul trucking."

Will the nanotrucks need nano-union nano-drivers?

What about the nano-truckstops? Staffed with nano-waitresses?

etc. etc. etc. :-)

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:How long before...

[KozmoStevnNaut]

Here ya go, the Daihatsu Terios Lucia [finnesey.org], available with a monstrous 660ccm motor.

The rest of the site (http://finnesey.org/ [finnesey.org]) has lots of other pics of cute little japanese cars (and a few rather cool Kei-car sports cars), too.

It seems that almost every single car available in Japan has either an AWD option, a turbo option or both...

Being picky but......

[Allnighterking]

In order to be a car, which is/was originally slang for Automobile it needs to be self propelled. What they have created is the worlds first cart. More exact, the rolling stock for the worlds first cart.

Still cool as shyte anyway you slice it.

Re:Being picky but......

[Allnighterking]

Dang one must read first.. change that to "worlds first nano cart."

I can see it now

[Omnieiunium]

Pimp my nano car.

Pic

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a pic:

          .

I hope they don't make the same mistake Ford made, and only offer it in black.

-AC

Re:Pic

[Soul-Burn666]

They already offer it in white aswell.
Here's a pic, with the car circled:

            o

And the gas mileage is still lousy...

[Cerdic]

The damn thing only gets 10 nanomiles per nanogallon!

Better Link

[sapgau]

With less cookies and better pictures at Nanotechnology Now [nanotech-now.com]

Re:Better Link

[ToadMan8]

Just for the sake of correctness, you should say "With fewer cookies..."

Less is a measure of amount (e.g. "Put less milk in if it bothers your stomach."), whereas "fewer" describes a measure of something you can count (like cookies, cars, etc.).

Re:Better Link

[antispam_ben]

Less is a measure of amount (e.g. "Put less milk in if it bothers your stomach."), whereas "fewer" describes a measure of something you can count (like cookies, cars, etc.).

Life is getting better for pedants, many supermarket express lanes now say "12 items or fewer."

But (OOTC) aren't you putting in FEWER molecules of milk?

The biggest problem

[Harker]

The ground clearance sucks.

H

Obligatory

[Council]

The obligatory joke to make here would be that if they think they've made this truck small, wait 'til they see what happens when the Japanese get their hands on it.

Or maybe, because the researchers are in Texas, I could suggest that they are now embarking on a program to make the biggest nano-car in the 50 states. Or that maybe they didn't insist on sticking a pickup bed on the back. Or "wow, have we discovered the only Texans who are secure about their penis size?"

But I'm not going to make any of those jokes. I'm not even going to make any potentially +1 insightful comments about how the real-world applications of this in terms of actual trucks in little tiny factories are clearly pretty silly from where I'm sitting, because things work totally differently on the nano scale, and that's just clearly grasping at some sort of relevance (though obviously, the construction methods are important).

Know why I'm not going to make any of those comments? Because I just don't care anymore. I try so hard to be interested sometimes, studying toward a Ph. D in physics and engaging in interesting slashdot debate day after day, and sometimes I sit here and realize that I don't really care about any of it. I want to go outside. I hate this damn computer, this damn internet, all you moderators, and myself for posting here seeking approval for these stupid, inane remarks and pseudointellectual commentary I barf up, seeing it moderated to +5 by people who don't know any better. Deliver me from this, merciful God. My soul is devoid of humor, and my life is an empty, broken shell.

Anyone want to go out for a drink?

Re:Obligatory

[interstellar_donkey]

One thing to consider: It techinically *is* intended to be a truck, but just like regular sized trucks in Texas it's really just there for folks to look at (hey, check out my truck!) They have no intention of actually using it to haul something around.

Re:Obligatory

[Council]

The news story mentions that "[e]ventually the researchers want to build tiny trucks that could carry atoms and molecules around in miniature factories."

Which sounds awfully sketchy to me.

Re:Obligatory

[Lord_Dweomer]

"Anyone want to go out for a drink?"

Looks like you've already beat us to it...

Re:Obligatory

[Council]

I dunno, know any good places?

Mixed Feelings About This

[Zobeid]

I've been watching for developments in nanotech ever since Engines of Creation was published back in 1985. It was a highly influential book for me, and I'm sure for many others. Progress has been a lot slower than some of us expected or hoped. This "car" brings forth two different feelings. . .

First, a dejected sigh. It's not useful for anything, and it's a long, awfully long way from the sophisticated "assemblers" that Drexler foresaw 20 years ago, with their thousands (or millions?) of molecular components.

On the other hand. . . These guys have actually built a mechanism with multiple moving parts at the molecular level. This is the first thing I've seen that looks anything like "real" molecular nanotechnology, as opposed to mere nanoscale particles.

So, is the glass half empty or half full? There's a temptation to laugh at this pathetic little "car" today -- but future generations might look back and say this is where the nanotechnology revolution first germinated. :)

EPA Estimates

[Quiet_Desperation]

Sadly, it was designed by GM, and so only gets 12 miles per gallon.

short-sightedness

[UESMark]

It is so typical that when developing the industrial nano-cities of the future they chose to develop nano-cars instead of a sensible atomic mass transit system. If this policy continues the consumption of nano-gas will raise nano-oil prices so high that soon we will have to invade nano-arabia. I for one will continue to endorse nano-carpooling and the use of nano-bikes whenever possible,

Took long enough

[nEoN nOoDlE]

Finally an elegant solution to rising gas prices. Now it will once again only cost me 20 bucks to fill up the tank.

Crookes Radiometer

[kd5ujz]

I wonder if you could attach a dark material, and a light material, and have the car move ala the vanes in a radiometer. with a car this small, light should be able to move it. Of course you would need a slight vacuum. Another problem, would be that people still do not have facts as to how the radiometer works, just theorys.

Re:Crookes Radiometer

[mbstone]

So it would need a vacuum gauge?

Impressive, but slightly misleading

[musakko]

Granted, this is very impressive science. But to say it's a 'car' reminds me of those ads for sea monkeys from comics years ago: The ones which showed them as basically being a little underwater nuclear family. Still bought some though! http://seamonkeys.3wpages.com/ComicSeamonkeyAd1.jp g [3wpages.com]

Gas

[Lord_Dweomer]

*sigh* And gas will STILL be too expensive...

Package

[ozTravman]

Okay so guys with small penises buy big cars.... Finally they have made a car suitable for me!

Finally: Honest Nanotechnology

[Baldrson]

What with all the hype about anything that we used to call "chemistry" or perhaps more precisely "surface chemistry" being portrayed as "nanotechnology", its refreshing to see something that actually fills the bill being demonstrated.

And it demonstrates the problems predicted by skeptics: The system had to be heated to the point that the carbon would debond from the gold so it could roll. I suspect it was a very bumpy roll. This sort of problem isn't likely to go away easily.

Eight thimble-sized cylinders

[mortong]

Bah, that's nothing. Wake me up when they make a little blue dune buggy.

Can't sit in a nanontech car

[SpaghettiPattern]

You can't sit in a nanontech car. This smallest car ever is still the Fiat 500 [500clubitalia.it]. Here's an image [500clubitalia.it]. And yes, (theoretically) 4 people can sit in it.

car stereo

[rishistar]

Does it come with a music system thats iPod nano ready?

Doctor Fun

[AndroidCat]

Reads Slashdot? [ibiblio.org]

String theory

[Saggi]

Now we can use the strings from string theory to make a rubberband engine for the car!

I have to admit...

[Gruneun]

I did not see this technology coming.

If your nanocar is broken . . .

[xyrw]

I guess you have to send it to a quantum mechanic.

Micromachines! Anyone remember those?

[xanthines-R-yummy]

Anyone remember those little toy cars called MicroMachines? [hasbro.com] They had commercials with the guy who could talk really fast. [cybertronchronicle.com] Maybe these NanoMachines(TM) [Mine, mine!, all mine!], will have an even faster talking guy.

PS It doesn't look like the second site will weather a slashdotting. Just lettin ya know!

Hate to bring any *facts* into this, but...

[Ancient_Hacker]

The reason it doesnt have a motor is your basic physics. Make a motor 10 times smaller, and its power output goes down by a factor of 1,000, but the friction only down by a factor of 100. Ten times more friction than before, proportionally. Do this just a few times and you have a motor that can't even turn itself over. Kinda reminds me of a Chevette diesel. This imbroglio happens many many powers of ten up the scale from this nano-idiocy. It may look cool but its very unlikely to ever be mobile.

Cart, not car

[ediron2]

Not to diss the creators and their accomplishment, but a pair of axles on a chassis hardly fits anyone's definition of a car. A cart, maybe.

Wow!

[gstoddart]

Suddenly today's Dr. Fun Cartoon [ibiblio.org] makes sense now. :-P

Followed up on this with a news story

[robyn217]

Hey guys,

I was fascinated by the idea (/. inspired), so i followed up on it by interviewing the head researcher. he gave me links to video of the Nanocar driving around, too. And filled me in on a new internal nanoscale motor. I wrote up my findings in this pcmag news story [pcmag.com].

-robyn

Re:All kidding aside

[SteveAyre]

Taking from nature's example in most animals I imagine the best way would be to pump a fluid around containing the required materials. (i.e. like blood)

Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university?

[Feyr]

and then get the MIT team to try to break in?

Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university?

[biryokumaru]

+1 obscure reference! =]

Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university?

[slashname3]

What's next nano-deabolt locks from Yale?

Nah, little tiny bumper stickers that say "save the whales!".

Re:Smallest car comes from RICE university?

[kurzweilfreak]

And little tiny Jesus fish. Followed by the little tiny Darwin fish.... which will actually be real bacteria that will consume the entire car.

Re:how

[machine of god]

And how did they stop it from sliding if sliding is so easy and rolling is so hard?

Re:It's perfect!

[Muttley]

What is a nano-toxin? How does it differ from a toxin? In what way does the creation of a small macromolecule in the shape of a car contribute to toxicity?

This is phobia and panic, started in the realm of GE food, and spreading, through ignorance, into the world of nanotech. Nanotech is ill defined, and literally means anything over the nano-scale. Scaremongers try to use new scary words (hence their profession), like nano-toxin, and site that nanoparticles are in things like sunscreen, aerosols...etc. Of course they are, for without TiO4 in sunscreen, it wouldn't block ultraviolet rays, and it wouldn't work. I fail to see the difference between a nano-toxin and a toxin, but regardless of what I fail to see, this kind of irrational skepticism and 'but it could be NANO-toxic!' are unhelpful, and only serve to further the divide between scientists and society. Likewise, scientists dismissing the concerns of the public also furthers this divide.

Inform yourself, ask questions of the scientists, but don't say sarcastic unhelpful things like 'it's perfect for producing nano-toxins', without explaining how this might occur.

But...

[Junta]

Can it make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs?

Re:lazy

[kd5ujz]

This was a last resort, after the microbes formed a union.