Molecular Motors

The smallest motors in the world may soon be powering teeny, tiny machines.

These nanomotors are 80,000 times smaller than a hair. In fact, they're the size of an individual molecule. To see the motor, of course, you'd need a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), which uses electrons instead of light to make it possible to see things as small as individual atoms.

How do you build a motor out of a molecule? Actually, our own bodies contain millions of such motors: They power our cells and keep our bodies in motion. So far, no one has been able to put nanomotors to work in the lab — but researcher Charles Sykes of Tufts University thinks he can. Said Sykes: "Theoretically, each molecule could be assigned a single task, creating ultra-tiny devices more than 10 million times smaller than some of the gadgets we use today."

Bizarrely, the molecules Sykes and his team are working with actually look like an axle and blade. In fact, they spin much like super-fast propellers when kept at ultra low temperatures. And Sykes has already found that it's possible to lock the molecules so that they work together.

So far, Sykes says, the nanomotors show promise for use in communications technology. Even more exciting, though, is the possibility that nanomotors in large quantities could become an alternative energy source.

Photo courtesy of Charles Sykes, Tufts University.