How small can machines get?
Scientists have built motors smaller than a grain of sand.
The answer
Nanotechnology operates at the scale of 1 to 100 nanometers - a nanometer is one billionth of a meter, about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. Scientists have created nanoscale motors, gears, and even 'cars' made of individual molecules. Medical researchers are developing nanorobots that could navigate the bloodstream to deliver drugs directly to cancer cells. The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the design of molecular machines - the smallest machines ever built, including a nano-car just 2 nanometers across.
Source: Nobel Prize Organization
- nanotechnology
- engineering
- chemistry
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