Nano-machine epic 'Epochal' 'Scientific and Technological Revolution' adds a lot of names to 'Nanobots' - just how many points are real and how many are strange? How far removed is reality from sci-fi? Yes, it's that amazing. To answer these questions, let's talk about the "true nature" of nanoscale robots today!
Nanobots were initially defined as "micromachines within 0.1 microns to 10 microns" from the point of view of "size". Later, scientists expanded the concept and defined nanorobots as "machines that manipulate nanoscale objects" from a "functional" point of view. Regardless of the definition, building a nanorobot is a very difficult task. First, it requires small parts, perhaps a thousandth of the diameter of a hair.
In 2016, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scholars working on "designing molecular machines. Their main work is the use of chemical synthesis to produce many switches, pumps, shafts and other molecular parts chemical methods can be synthesized a series of molecular parts: typical nanoswitch image, by changing the pH can control the migration of specific molecules .
There are also hardware technologies used to make nanoparts. Photolithography, which is used primarily in the fabrication of chips, is a processing technique capable of achieving one of the few nanoscale accuracies mastered by humans. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology in the United States can use photolithography to produce complex three-dimensional metal geometries with a resolution of 25 nanometers to 100 nanometers. In 2019, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Research Institute in the United States developed "femtosecond projection two-photon lithography," a technique that can increase the processing speed of conventional technology by 1,000 times, printing nanostructures the size of a sesame seed in just 8 minutes and 20 seconds, with processing precision maintained at the nanometer level.
Chemical and photolithographic methods have also produced nano-parts, but these parts still need to be assembled to the robot. How to realize the micro-scale assembly, is "nanorobot" research is another difficult hurdle. 1980s, people realized the control of single atoms. In 2005, the Chinese Academy of Sciences succeeded in moving carbon nanotubes, which are 4 micrometers long and 100 nanometers thick, into the right grooves. But it was a question of how to do nano-assemblies on a large scale.In 2015, a team of researchers at the French National Academy of Sciences combined thousands of nanomachines through supramolecular bonds, and the individual nanomachines managed to undergo linear telescopic movements of about 1 nanometer. Accumulate a lot, and the motions of these tens of thousands of small nanomachines could be merged to undergo a 10-micron contraction and expansion like muscle tissue.
Nevertheless, these studies have only achieved a simple integration of "nanoparts," and humans still have a long way to go before they can assemble the pinpoint, all-powerful machines seen in movies. How do you drive a nanobot? Scientists also want to draw attention to nanomachines. They have entered into a cooperation agreement with the International Automobile Federation to promote the development of nanocar conferences. For "nanobots", the products we see now are very simple, but part of them can only be described as "nano-parts". One day in the future, you may come to the hospital, sick, to the doctor's prescription written "injection of 5 milliliters of nanobots, drink water.