June 1, 2009 - Volume 87, Number 22
- p. 27
Science & Technology
More Science & Technology Concentrates
- Finding Crystallization Sweet Spots
- Automated device mixes nanoliter quantities of membrane-protein components.
- Probing More Of That Vast Chemical Space
- Including chemical scaffolds in libraries aids screening.
- Magnetic Nanopropellers On The Move
- Microscopic swimmers can be propelled wirelessly.
- Oak Barrel Provenance Alters Wine Chemistry
- Geographic traits in barrel woods shape wine's complexity.
- Directing Fluorination Differently
- After fluorination, directing group can be transformed to make a range of F-containing molecules.
- An Easier Way To Model Hydrate Lattices
- New method streamlines computations by focusing on likely structures.
- Antifouling Agent Linked To Endangered Fish Deformities
- Study implicates triphenyltin in Chinese sturgeon abnormalities.
- A Simpler Route To Multifunctional Nanocomposites
- Viruses serve as biological templates for nanoscale heterostructures.
Topics Covered
Nano Lett.
A nanostructured swimmer.
Inspired by the corkscrew motion of bacterial flagella, scientists working at Harvard University's Rowland Institute have created a legion of nanostructured swimmers that can be propelled wirelessly through water via a magnetic field (Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl900186w). The tiny propellers are the first fully controlled artificial swimmers that can be navigated with micrometer-level precision, according to their inventors, Peer Fischer and Ambarish Ghosh. The mobile structures' small size makes them attractive agents for carrying chemicals or conducting rheological measurements. At just 200–300 nm wide and 1–2 μm long, they are also considerably smaller than previously reported corkscrew swimmers, the smallest of which is about 30 μm long. Fischer and Ghosh fashion the swimmers out of glass so that they are easy to chemically functionalize. The researchers cover a silicon wafer with a monolayer of glass beads and then grow the helices from silica vapor via glancing-angle deposition. A partial cobalt coating is added to make the swimmers magnetic. Fischer and Ghosh hope to someday see such tiny artificial swimmers used in biomedical applications.
- Chemical & Engineering News
- ISSN 0009-2347
- Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society
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