Robotic Nano-Spiders Made of DNA Molecules

[rodsky]

This is nice! First step towards real nanotech. But don't get too overexcited. Despite the greatness of the achievement, it is far from the reality of what you might expect from sci-fi movies. If you're interested of the source publication, I downloaded and uploaded it here. nature09012.pdf The spider-like robot is really built from DNA but it is still from from real robots that you can really control or like the artist's impression posted by the TS.

Yes, artist's impressions can sometimes be misleading. Another good example are artist's impressions in astronomy, i.e. when NASA wants the public to be interested in say exoplanets, they hire graphic artists to depict these planets with artistic freedom, but within the bounds of what factual information the scientists have about the planet in question, but sometimes the resulting artwork is taken literally. What's even worse about the image posted above, is that it's NOT an artist's impression, but a "stylized" image depicting the nano-spider. So I'll temper this post by doing this:

"Stylized" (i.e. influenced by image of "spider" and "robot") image of these Nanobots:


Artist's Impression


What they might actually look like under a scanning electron microscope:


So, in order to "sell" an idea well, sometimes the financiers of the scientists (and not the scientists themselves) rely on "baiting" tactics by using "nice" graphics, in order to grab public attention.

-RODION

[handsoff241]

^
Rody it's nice to know that. Reduced the amount of misconception.

+100 Info!

[THE SKULLS]

mao na ni isulod sa mga ugat sa tawo. pastilan, mura na ni'g TRON puhon.
bitaw, it's very interesting.

[brandnewbien]

kuyaw kng maka tambal nig cancer. mao na niy bakuna para sa cancer

[fritzd]

What they might actually look like under a scanning electron microscope:


So, in order to "sell" an idea well, sometimes the financiers of the scientists (and not the scientists themselves) rely on "baiting" tactics by using "nice" graphics, in order to grab public attention.

-RODION

Indeed. Anyway, I think they used AFM (atomic force microscopy) based on their original publication. I think they didn't want their samples to die right away if they used SEM. hehe

I'm no biologist nor chemist but their work is really quite fascinating. I haven't read the whole paper yet but they can control the movement of their MOLECULAR ROBOT (a more scientific term, hehe). If it's published in Nature then it is more than something.

Taken from nature09012.pdf

[AMD_infinium05]

the stylized image really attracts attention.

[treize]

Kuyaw sad ni og pataka lang unya ni sila og detect..

[steve 27]

dili na tinuod..lisud pa pagbuhat ug nano size biomechanical device...ug ma control pa gyud ...still scifi..

[nealotol]

wow, nice invention nasad nga makatabang sa atong inadlawng panginabuhi..

[Mr_Bean]

mura man og sa G.I. Joe...mga "Nanomites"...