Algae Can Carry Cargo

Steve Nixon writes "Recently, a team of scientists devised a way to make single-celled algae bear loads over distances of several centimeters--a tactic that the researchers say could prove useful in tiny machines. Algae and other single-celled organisms power their movements with molecular motors. 'Scientists have long coveted these motors for use in micromachinery,' notes chemist Douglas B. Weibel of Harvard University.

Heh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Cute little bastards, lugging cargo around.

Must be the meds

[portforward]

I slipped and wrenched my back this morning, so I've taken some pain medication, but the first thing that popped into my head when i saw the headline was a vast raft of algae carrying standard size shipping containers across the ocean. I must be in pretty bad shape.

Re:Must be the meds

[solowlr]

That's exactly what I thought, and I'm not even medicated. Come to think of it, why don't we propose this form of transport too?

I also have motors

[AviLazar]

They are called my feet...and they get me around a lot farther then a few centimeters.

Just wait until they organize...

[markana]

and go on strike. Can't you just see the little picket signs circling around the pond?

Re:Just wait until they organize...

[Tackhead]

> > Recently, a team of scientists devised a way to make single-celled algae bear loads over distances of several centimeters
>
> Just wait until they organize... and go on strike. Can't you just see the little picket signs circling around the pond?

Algae Shrugs!

"To hell with with all multicellular organisms! They're all a bunch of looters and moochers!"

(Also by the same author, Photosynthesis: The Unknown Ideal! and The Fountain-liner!)

Re:Just wait until they organize...

[mOdQuArK!]

Can't you just see the little picket signs circling around the pond?

No...the signs would be too small.

Just wait until PETA hears about this

[weighn]

this is just so cruel [peta.org].

Great! Now Kozmo.com can finally return!

[glomph]

And stoners can again get pizza and Mountain Dew delivered directly to their sofa by this tireless algae crew (better than the old slime molds that used to do the job!)

Re:Great! Now Kozmo.com can finally return!

[_ph1ux_]

man I loved that site. I loved having DVDs delivered to my office in SF after purchasing them online - within an hour.

Is there anything like this around any more?

Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[w98]

I'm getting married Sept 17th and will need help moving furniture and boxes of geek books...

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[nsasch]

Stop lying... really, like someone could actually have a girlfriend and get married who spends time on /. and also be allowed to keep geek books.

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[Solder Fumes]

All he said was that he was moving them...what he didn't say was that he needs help moving them out of his house to the dumpster. The guy's couch ALWAYS goes after marriage because she can't stand the thought of what might have happened on that couch with other women.

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[guaigean]

Ya, like anything ever happened on that couch. This is /. Nerds may get wives, but thats just cause we knew to hang on to the only one that ever said yes.

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[w98]

we knew to hang on to the only one that ever said yes

Top Reasons to Date a Geek [w98.us]

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[Oreo_Borealis]

Nice list! It reminded me why I keep my geek around ;)

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[Agret]

Mod parent insightful. I need to get a date.

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[trongey]

"Ya, like anything ever happened on that couch..." ... with a woman. At least an organic one. She probably still has reason to be concerned.

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[andphi]

Congratulations! As it turns out, I'm also getting married 9/17/05

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[w98]

Whoa, two /.'ers getting married on the same day, that's spooky. An omen, perhaps. ;o)

Congrats to you as well.

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[andphi]

As far as omens and portents go, I predict we won't be spending much time on /. between 9/17 and 9/20. (I won't even have access again until 9/25 or so.)

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoa, two /.'ers getting married on the same day, that's spooky.

Maybe that's your S.O.

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[ggvaidya]

Congratulations to parent and GP! :)

Re:Wanted: a few billion algae to help me move

[accessdeniednsp]

Geek getting married? This is one of those "who wants to..." shows isn't it?

Sure, they can carry cargo...

[Scareduck]

... but can you get a teensy, tiny corporate logo on their sides?

Re:Sure, they can carry cargo...

[patio11]

Combine biotech with IBM's nanotech [sadgeezer.com] and you can brand each of them with a carbon structure on their cell walls. Which is great, because if anyone ever happens to take a gander at one with an electron microscope they'll see an ad for you! Remember, the key to improving brand presence is ubiquity.

Re:Sure, they can carry cargo...

[someone1234]

Actually they organize themselves in a logo shape in the vat.

Re:Sure, they can carry cargo...

[LifesABeach]

I can see it now, powered by "Even Root"

Re:Hey Looser!!

[Oreo_Borealis]

*typewriter

A twist on a old joke...

[tktk]

I, for one, welcome our new cargo-carrying slaves.

Re:A twist on a old joke...

[pigiron]

Algae of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your loads!

I, Darl McBride,

[Anonymous Coward]

... being a well-known ball of slime, could be useful in organizing the algae to toil in your underground sugar caves.

Let my Algae go!

[Alystair]

But the real question is if they can make tiny pyramids.

Re:Let my Algae go!

[WillAffleckUW]

But the real question is if they can make tiny pyramids.

Only if you shine a strong light on the top of the pyramids.

So obviously, we need a troupe of trained monkeys carrying flashlights to marshal them to build pyramids, and we'll give the monkeys cloth headdresses decorated with asps, and very tiny whips made of microfilaments in case they stray ...

Re:Let my Algae go!

[xXBondsXx]

But the real question is if they can make tiny pyramids.
oh no my friend, the real question is:

but does it run linux?

Re:Let my Algae go!

[PingPongBoy]

But the real question is if they can make tiny pyramids

Oh yeah? They built the real ones.

TCP/OA

[kevin_conaway]

Old and busted: TCP/IP

New Hotness: TCP Over Algae!

Re:TCP/OA

[Nuclear Elephant]

New Hotness: TCP Over Algae!

This could also solve the country's power grid problem, if we could develop routers and servers that were powered by photosynthesis.

Re:TCP/OA

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortuantely, there is a finite limit on the maximum time to live on TCP/OA packets.

Re:TCP/OA

[QuantaStarFire]

While your idea is sound in theory, how have you solved the problem of data loss from being eaten by marine life?

Pinging yahoo.com [216.109.112.135] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=51
Request eaten by trout.
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=51
Request eaten by salmon.

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 0, Eaten = 2 (50% loss)

Re:TCP/OA

[uptoeleven]

presumably where said fish is eaten by a penguin that's Pingu... To be honest with you the results you're getting with algae aren't much worse than my current ISP.

Re:TCP/OA

[Anonymous Coward]

Pinging google.com [216.239.37.99] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=5days TTL=14days (with food)
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=5days TTL=14days (with food)
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=6days TTL=14days (with food)
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=21days TTL=14days (with food)

Ping statistics for 216.239.37.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 1 , Eat 1
Approximate round trip times in days-weeks:
Minimum = 5days, Maximum = 2

Re:TCP/OA

[ubergoober]

Coffee + Snort = Messy Nose Explosion. Thanks!

Algae cargo carriers will be replaced by nanobots

[WillAffleckUW]

unless they get a strong union like the Teamsters.

Just imagine a picket line of these guys ....

Algae on steroids

[pin_gween]

Maybe, but it's only a matter of time before Balco reps meet algae at the lab and give them "the cream." Wait til algae get buff on 'roids... watch what they can carry then.

A Change for Once...

[Comatose51]

They for one welcome their new light emitting, load passing overlords.

Re:A Change for Once...

[SnoopJeDi]

I think you mean they for [some absurb billions figure per tiny area]

Great! I can start a trucking company now

[ross.w]

with the contents of my shower.

Interview

[Horizon_99]

There is an interview with chemist George Whitesides, one of the authors of the paper in question, at sciencefriday.com [sciencefriday.com] for those interested.

This was on Science Friday

[FlynnMP3]

Dowload the show http://www.sciencefriday.com/ [sciencefriday.com] or the podcast on date 8-19 with George Whitesides. He is the administrative lead of the project and he talks about other interesting things besides Algae toting around loads.

-FlynnMP3

SHHHH! Don't tell PETA!

[Tsu Dho Nimh]

PETA = People for the Ethical Treatment of Algae

Re:SHHHH! Don't tell PETA!

[MustardMan]

I thought it stood for People for the Eating of Tasty Animals

Re:SHHHH! Don't tell PETA!

[e. boaz]

No, no, no. It stands for People for the Eating of Tasty Algae!

Re:SHHHH! Don't tell PETA!

[trongey]

No, it's PETUP - People for the Ethical Treatment of Unicellular Plants (or Eating Tasty). PETA took a lesson from Linus and sued for trademark infringement.

Thanks !

[CSHARP123]

Recently, a team of scientists devised a way to make single-celled algae bear loads over distances of several centimeters
With this kind of gas prices any help we get will be appreciated. Thanks Algae. I have a request, Could you please carry me and my car to the work everyday?

You're Welcome.

[pavon]

Could you please carry me and my car to the work everyday?
Here you go [google.com].

Re:Thanks !

[jacen_sunstrider]

Umm...why your car, too?

Linux Obligatory Joke

[Graviteh]

Yeah, but can they carry Linux?

Yeah, but can they carry Linus?

[slyborg]

Middle-age has not been kind.

Re:Linux Obligatory Joke

[ggvaidya]

Surely you mean: can they carry Linus?

From the movie soundtrack album

[unitron]

What's that in your pool...

...Algae?"

all fine and dandy

[circletimessquare]

just don't tell Plankton

or we'll have another stoner SpongeBob SquarePants movie on our hands

Don'tcha think this micro management has...

[3seas]

...gone to far...

I think We have bigger concerns today... like the price of gas to move alot more in a day than algie ever will.

Re:Don'tcha think this micro management has...

[SnoopJeDi]

You can never have too much micro [purepwnage.com]

Ask Slashdot

[katana]

What's an algae bear? Is this one of those UK things? Like a 'loo' is really a toilet? Is an 'algae bear' a goatee or something?

This may have appliccation without limit

[Hao Wu]

Imagin the prospect of alge cell organisms moving under tiny motors on top of a water's surface. Then close both of your eyes and see THE FUTURE.

Yes, But can they carry Linux Distros?

[Anonymous Coward]

(looking into a microscope...)

Ah, yes - there goes a 1, a 1, a 0, another 0, a 1, a 0 ...

A bit slow on the bandwidth, but your software is environmentally friendly!

Re:Yes, But can they carry Linux Distros?

[Mr2cents]

And you can put your distro in a jar of agar, and have it copied at an exponential rate!

Races start next week

[OneArmedMan]

Betting at all the usual places.

Who moved my cheese?

[Enzo the Baker]

Relax, dude, nobody moved your cheese. It just got moldy, and then it was like "hey, there's more sunlight overe there", and it crawled over by the window.

Some of you have missed the point entirely

[gt384u]

It's not a matter of "Gee, what is this good for?" If you explore more of Whitesides' research, a lot of his work is very much in the realm of 'proof-of-concept'. I've had the pleasure to hear him speak before on his research in self-assembly and it's astounding what some of the systems his students have devised can do. Check his research out here [harvard.edu]. The one project that astounded me in particular was self-assembly of functioning electronic devices using nothing but hydrophobic interactions. Wickedly cool.

To be honest, this particular piece of research is almost a footnote in his career. Most of the things he does will never end up in something the average person ever comes into contact with, but the salient ideas will change the landscape [sciencewatch.com] of technology 20 years down the road [sciencewatch.com]. If you're at all interested in nanoscience, this is a guy to watch.

Old News

[Alsee]

I've seen this exact same effect years ago with small children and CrazyGlue.

-

Yeah, but...

[eyegone]

Can they reach low Earth orbit?

Our green slaves

[Call Me Black Cloud]

What happens when they demand reparations? Each individually won't want much but together? Watch out!

Old news

[jemenake]

Go down to the shoreline and step on an inclined algae-covered rock.

I asure you that they'll bear your load a lot further than a few centimeters. (Although getting your ass to the emergency room afterward is your problem)

I can't believe no one has said it yet

[know_op]

Whoa!

I can't wait for a beowulf cluster of these!

Sweet, my first ./ meme!

2001: an Algae Oddysey

[dthx1138]

This sounds like the perfect way to make a space elevator

...

anybody know where can i buy algae by the kilometer?

I'm not gonna carry it...

[sohp]

eukaryote!

Re:I'm not gonna carry it...

[sohp]

No, let's hire a prokaryote!

Re:I'm not gonna carry it...

[QuantumFTL]

That is the single most horrifying thing I've read in a long time.

Please do not do that again!

Domestic servants

[Dhalphir]

Bring me food, minions!

Progress

[LinuxSneaker]

"Bob, we've got some bad news for you. You're being replaced at the factory."
"What! %$^&#, it's outsourcing, isn't it. Or you've brought cheap labor from some country, didn't you!"
"Actually, no. You're being replaced with algae. Don't you read Slashdot?"
"........?"

Re:Progress

[xgamer04]

They could take the specs from the customer to the engineers.

OMG! It's a Catch and Release program, too!

[FFFish]

"When the cells reached their destinationswimming as much as 20 centimeters, or 20,000 of their own body lengths, from start to finishthe researchers flashed UV light to break the chemical bond that attached the beads. Visible light shining from the track's opposite end coaxed the organisms back to the start."

FRAGGLE ROCK

[alex4u2nv]

This reminds me of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085017/ [imdb.com]

Use algae to build a motherboard?

[UnapprovedThought]

1. Shine the pattern of an electronic circuit (e.g. a motherboard) down, until algae collect on the lighted parts.
2. Flash the UV light to make the algae drop their cargo, nominally a conductor, but possibly a semiconductor.
3. Shine light back to a repository of insulator so they return to pick up the next load.
4. While that's going on, "Cook" the circuit to set the conductor, cool it and then place it back precisely where it was.
5. Use the algae to lay down a layer of insulator uniformly over the conductor, except at the layer-to-layer contact points.
6. Repeat until an entire 3-D circuit is built.

Only low density stuff could be produced this way, but maybe it is more environmentally friendly ?

Run, RUN!!!!!

[bhaak1]

H.P. Lovecraft was right after all!

He describes those algae in "At the Mountains of Madness"!

We are all doomed!!!!11

Algae

[insanehatchetclown]

I say nay, Thats just more and more outsourcing as far as I'm concerned ;) only this time its with single-celled organism's. What's this world coming to!?

my opinion

[Viking Coder]

I for one welcome our new load-bearing algae overlords.

Darwin's Black Box

[technoCon]

(apologies if this comes off as a troll)

When I became disillusioned with the Creationists, my single dominant thought was, "if you're right and this isn't junk science, DO SOMETHING with it." I proposed specifics like manufacturing opals and stalagtites on shortened time frames. (Wouldn't it be cool to build a game room with real stalagtites?)

I also read Michael Behe's book "Darwin's Black Box" wherein he describes the "irreducible complexity" of things Mr. Dawkins would call designoids like mousetraps and

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[rd4tech]

Please tell a geek deeply rooted in electrical and software systems, why this is helpful and why it couldnt be replaced with a simpler solution...

Maybe teach them to clean keyboards? ;)

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[LurkerXXX]

The manufacturing facility for more cargo carriers is a vat with some nutrients and sunlight. What's your simpler assembly line look like?

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[temi]

the part i dont find simple is attaching the cargo to these carriers and tracking it. Much less what the hell would be useful enough to put on algae, and then furthermore, something that small that needs to be carried a FEW CENTIMETERS?! i dont see...

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[temi]

Wait are we serious...

I may be misunderstood. I dont mean a simpler process of producing crap-carrying-algae my friend. I mean a simpler process of moving crap a few meters. For example if you can even find anything that small worth moving a FEW CENTIMETERS, why not use oh i dunno...

degradable capsules (like medicine pills), injection, air propellant, liquid propellant, heck even a soft nudge.

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[LurkerXXX]

There could be a number of sitiuations where algae might work better. Example, maybe you have a target thats covered with a glass/plexiglass/translucent-plastic plate on one side that you don't want to break (no simply injecting your payload into). It might not be a direct shot to the target area, so that air or liquid propellant might have it land in the wrong place. You could however shine a light on the right spot and have the algae swim around until it found it. I'm sure folks can think of others.

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[benjamindees]

Let's see, perhaps redundancy, control, absolute size, ability to metabolize their own fuel from readily-available materials.

But what makes you think algae aren't the simplest process? If evolution is even somewhat true, algae would have long ago become a more efficient self-contained carrier than we could economically muster.

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[bm_luethke]

That's a terrible attitude. You claim to be a geek but can't see anything other than a direct simple application? Please turn in your geek card, geeks need ot be better thinkers than that.

Many, if not most, "worthless" discoveries are very worth while. Say, for instance one that happened around me a few years back, why does your shower curtain billow inward in a shower? Models at the time, all of them, showed it should go the other way (one would think that the steam would expand pushing it out, and air isn

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[temi]

That's a terrible attitude. You claim to be a geek but can't see anything other than a direct simple application? Please turn in your geek card, geeks need ot be better thinkers than that.

*Sigh* Come one. I am no geek then, I will renounce that, but Im not that dumb either. Your example was pretty cool but you did not cite any sources at all. Alas I will let it go because you tried.

You basically are saying you have FAITH that something big will come of this which is why it is important. Wow, in science,

Re:algae carrying crap for a few centimeters...

[paving-slab]

...The curtain problem looks like simple 'hot air rises' to me. The steam goes up and the cold air coming in at the bottom pushes against the curtain. Simple.

I would have thought it was because the water flowing from the shower head drags air down with it causing a downdraught in the area of the shower.

This air would then be at a lower pressure than the air outside the shower curtain causing the curtain to billow inwards.

Re:Scientists my thumb!

[trongey]

And technicians. Don't forget the technicians. They use things, too.
Definitely, scientists need to be not trying to figure out how to use things. Maybe it's time for a union to sort all of this stuff out.