Scientists 3D Print Microscopic Star Trek Spaceship That Moves On Its Own (cnn.com) 52
fahrbot-bot shares a report from CNN: A team of physicists at a university in the Netherlands have 3D-printed a microscopic version of the USS Voyager, an Intrepid-class starship from Star Trek. The miniature Voyager, which measures 15 micrometers (0.015 millimeters) long, is part of a project researchers at Leiden University conducted to understand how shape affects the motion and interactions of microswimmers.
Microswimmers are small particles that can move through liquid on their own by interacting with their environment through chemical reactions. The platinum coating on the microswimmers reacts to a hydrogen peroxide solution they are placed in, and that propels them through the liquid. "By studying synthetic microswimmers, we would like to understand biological microswimmers," Samia Ouhajji, one of the study's authors, told CNN. "This understanding could aid in developing new drug delivery vehicles; for example, microrobots that swim autonomously and deliver drugs at the desired location in the human body." In their project, the physicists also printed shapes like boats, trimers and helices, with each object's shape affecting their swimming behaviors.
Microswimmers are small particles that can move through liquid on their own by interacting with their environment through chemical reactions. The platinum coating on the microswimmers reacts to a hydrogen peroxide solution they are placed in, and that propels them through the liquid. "By studying synthetic microswimmers, we would like to understand biological microswimmers," Samia Ouhajji, one of the study's authors, told CNN. "This understanding could aid in developing new drug delivery vehicles; for example, microrobots that swim autonomously and deliver drugs at the desired location in the human body." In their project, the physicists also printed shapes like boats, trimers and helices, with each object's shape affecting their swimming behaviors.
Re:Leiden de gekste !!!1!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Go for a walk. Stay off facebook for a bit.
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Re:Leiden de gekste !!!1!! (Score:5, Funny)
German eh? We can tell. A Dutch could never construct a sentence that long without mentioning bicycles.
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Maach net de Geck mat de Leit.
Only here because "Star Trek" (Score:1)
Not even on the /. news radar if it was a 3D Easter bunny.
amazing! (Score:2)
So, the microscopic equivalent of the toy boat with a sliver of soap at the back. Good to see they're earning their keep.
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Do you kick out you 2 year old child, because they are making silly pictures, that look nothing like what they say they are, because they are not good enough to sell, nor is it a direct path to their future job.
Or do you hang them up, and support your child as it is showing your child is improving on their motor and connotative skills.
Ok, yes making the Voyager will not accomplish too much, however it is a way to perfect a craft and perhaps it may take generations... But to be able to build machines and pro
Now that's stupid (Score:3)
On the other hand, if it would have been the Defiant...
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On the other hand, if it would have been the Defiant...
It would take every shot without shields. Oh, and Bashir would get stuck in an insupportable turbolift lusting after Terry Farrell.
Close-up view of the mini USS Voyager (Score:5, Funny)
Close-up view of the mini USS Voyager:
.
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Only until it meets the new Klingon design:
,
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*
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are ASCII jokes a new low, or a new high?
???
hawk
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are ASCII jokes a new low, or a new high?
Yes!
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Fluidic space (Score:5, Interesting)
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> fluidic space.
You have changed my mind about this being a nerdcrime.
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I wonder if they chose Voyager because it's the only USS ship to enter fluidic space.
It seems more likely that it was chosen because of it's shape. Specifically Voyager [startrek.com] doesn't have a thin/fragile section that connects the front and back. All the Enterprise ships seem to have a spindly thin section that could easily break.
News for nerds (Score:1)
Now this is news for nerds!
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Aaahhh, it's so cute!
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Now this is news for nerds!
...but is it stuff that matters?
...
To nerds it is.
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Now this is news for nerds!
...but is it stuff that matters?
...
To nerds it is.
No.
Putting aside the question... (Score:4, Interesting)
Putting aside the question of whether this is impressive or not, it is not moving on its own. It's moving due to a chemical reaction with the medium. Moving on its own would be if it contained its own propellant and oxidizer (or equivalent) and it moved by throwing it out the back. This isn't that. Headline is crap as per usual.
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> It's moving due to a chemical reaction with the medium
Wake me up when an F-150 starts coming from the factory with an oxygen tank.
Plant more trees.
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A shio with a propeller would have the same problem "moving on its own", which is clearly an odd position.
A sailing ship dependent on wind can't move on its own.
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Putting aside the question of whether this is impressive or not, it is not moving on its own. It's moving due to a chemical reaction with the medium. Moving on its own would be if it contained its own propellant and oxidizer (or equivalent) and it moved by throwing it out the back. This isn't that. Headline is crap as per usual.
It is containing its own propellant, the platinum coating. It is using the peroxide to interact with this propellant similar to how a petroleum based engine uses the oxygen in the air to move a car, plane, train, etc. If you demand that everything is contained in one unit then almost no vehicles actually move on their own.
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it is not moving on its own. It's moving due to a chemical reaction with the medium. Moving on its own would be if it contained its own propellant and oxidizer
By your definition, jet aircraft are not moving on their own as they require oxygen from the atmosphere. Any vehicle with an ICE is also not moving on it's own by your definition. Apparently very few living creatures on the planet are moving on their own by your definition. What about cephalopods or mollusks? They don't carry fuel or oxidizers, but they expel sea water by "throwing it out the back".
Mini Ship (Score:2)
Now all we need is a human-shrink-ray and we can actually use the damn thing.
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My weiner is small enough as it is.
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Shrink the women more then the men so you're hung like a horse to them, EZ
It has to be said (Score:4, Informative)
To boldly go where no one has gone before.
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That they used Voyager clearly shows that they are tasteless idiots. That Voyager shit is like Star Wars fanfic. That is to say; lame as fuck.
Even the micro printing that sounded like a significant achievement was done with "a commercially available 3D microprinter". LAME!
Voyager was basically mooning every person who every appreciated Trek. They were basically shaking yo' dicks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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That was Rick Berman.
He had no background or interest in science fiction, wasn't a Star Trek fan, and had peculiar ideas about storytelling. One that particular that impacted Voyager was that Berman insisted that they portray the main characters as emotionlessly as possible. From an in-universe standpoint this kind of makes sense; these people are professionals that wouldn't spend every day running around and chewing the scenery. But it also made the performances wooden, depriving viewers of any way to
Eww.Voyager? (Score:2)
There's a joke in there somewhere about them wanting to see the behavior of icky things at bacterial sizes, and them using the worst of all Star Treks as their 'model'.
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Micro-Janeway would have had a chance to wipe out COVID, but would have exchanged not doing so for safe passage another 7 inches.
If they wanted attention from grownups... (Score:2)
...they should have printed a Tesla. (gdarvvf)
Should have been Discovery (Score:2)
I could *maybe* buy into an idea of a ship *this* size being able to move through a network of mushrooms. ;)