Will You Ride This Nano-Elevator?

Roland Piquepaille writes "Chemists from Italy and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have built the world's smallest elevator. It is a molecular elevator, about 2.5 nanometers high and 3.5 nanometers wide. The molecular platform sits on three legs which can move up and down by one nanometer. The New Scientist and the New York Times (free registration needed) are both reporting about this nano-elevator. The researchers think this system might be used as a drug delivery system. Even if they're right, it will not happen before at least ten years. This overview contains some excerpts from the two articles mentioned above. It also includes a schematical representation of the chemical equilibrium between the two co-conformations of the molecular elevator."

Deliver drugs?

[phoenix.bam!]

I find it highly unlikely that moving something 1 nanometer will be usful for delivering drugs. It is a shame researchers have to pretend that their research does something it doesn't just to get funding. I know there are many other people here who would agree with me that more funding is needed for the general pursuit of knowledge that has nothing to do with the bottom line of a company.

Re:Deliver drugs?

[the_other_one]

Well, by attaching five of these together in the right way you could make a really small walking robot.
This would be very difficult to detect crossing the border with drugs.
Unfortunately, It would take about a million years for it do deliver enough to roll a joint.

Re:Deliver drugs?

[SagSaw]

Keep in mind that many useful inventions and technologies are discovered which searching for something else. Drug-delivery is one possible use, however, now that they've published their results, somebody else may think of a more realistic use.

Re:Deliver drugs?

[thrillseeker]

I find it highly unlikely that moving something 1 nanometer will be usful for delivering drugs.

The movement of a desired molecule a single nanometer may be all that is required to break that single molecule free of the bonding forces keeping it within a delivery package, thus allowing it to flow at an extremely precisely-controlled rate into the bloodstream or a specific cell. Nanomachines that can move individual molecules short distances will also be able to operate at very high frequencies - the result being the tight control of a desired chemical reaction.

Re:Deliver drugs?

[bjackrian]

I'm one of those "many other" people who agree with you, phoenix.bam! I'm not sure that a mechanism like this needs to have a practical use to be thought of as important. For me, a lot of the emphasis on the practical use of new technologies is over-rated. Can't we just be amazed that we're able to move things that a distance that's only about 5 or 10 atoms' widths? That's pretty damn cool.

Re:Deliver drugs?

[Bluesman]

I think it's unlikely too. I think they'll stick to high speed powerboats for a long time to come.

Walk, Don't Run

[minusthink]

These drugs should just take the nanostairs. They're getting a little nano-pudgy.

Re:Walk, Don't Run

[sapped]

They're getting a little nano-pudgy.

With the kind of dimensions we are talking about here, you will have to get a "bit" more precise than "little" to be taken seriously.

Elevator?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't call it an elevator. To me all elevators cover more vertical distance than they are wide. Worse, the platform is drawn up by the top of the elevator, so the nano-riders would be squashed or at least stop the "elevator" from functioning. Maybe this could be used as a valve, but wouldn't a nano-flap be better?

I'm trying really hard to have a "first post" here. The first on-topic and non-joke post. I'm not having much luck, so I'll AC it.

Re:Elevator?

[zero_offset]

To me all elevators cover more vertical distance than they are wide.

That might be what "elevator" means to you, but it doesn't mean that to the guys who designed the giant elevators used to move planes between decks on aircraft carriers. It seems likely there are many other examples.

Re:Nanomother to nanoboy:

[spike hay]

"But mom! How do you know I was running up the escalator! I was running in a superposition of up and down, until you measured it!"

nanotech?

[glen604]

While this doesn't seem super useful for delivering drugs, this could be a good start to creating nanotech devices...

What I wanna know is...

[OC_Wanderer]

how big the elevator operator is. And does he work for tips?

Hey -

[ColaMan]

Will You Ride This Nano-Elevator?

Sure! Where is it?

(Nano-*crunch*)

Oh, sorry about that. Jeez, warn me before you leave another nanoelevator just lying around like that, ok? Maybe you want to keep it in a box or something.

Elevator?

[dragonfly28]

When you read the original article at Science [sciencemag.org], you will see this is no elevator in fact.

Stoddart et al have made a system which can move stepwise in solution by adding or releasing protons (acid). Since this whole experiment is done is solution nothing is going in any particular direction, everything is randomly organized in solution.

So until this system is fixed on a surface and can actually preform some work, e.g. moving a weight from one station to another, I think the term elevator is premature.

And if you want to be able use this system for some real work, you should move it out of solution and into the solid phase. This is one of the biggest challenges of all these kin of Rotaxane based systems

An elevator to deliver drugs?

[mikeophile]

Brings new meaning to getting high.