• Question: How would you power nano-bots to use them to preform various tasks, e.g Stopping at a specified location, removing mutations, carrying atoms around etc.

    Asked by heisenberg to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Christian Wirtz

      Christian Wirtz answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Hi,

      I’m afraid nano-bots are a fantasy that will never come true in the ways portrayed in popular media. It is not that we don’t have the technology to make one, but there are physical limitations to things that are that small. Fluids like water, blood and even air behave very differently on such small lengths scales. They exert far more resistance and you cannot use conventional propulsion methods like propellers to move through them. The only way of moving is by using flagella, like bacteria do, and those are extremely slow, too slow to bring a nanobot anywhere useful.

      So I’m afraid that the idea of a nanobot moving around and removing mutations is a science fiction thing that will never come true – not because of the lack of technology, but due to fundamental physical laws. And those are fixed.
      Sorry about that.

    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Hi Heisenberg, love your work!

      As Chris explained, nanobots as they are portrayed in the media will never be realised due to the fundamental way fluids and nanoparticles interact.

      However, say we did make a nanobot with bacteria-like flagella (whip-like appendages) and we had a use for it where it didn’t have to get anywhere too quickly, how would we power it? This is a real problem because, of course, any fuel contained in the nano-bot would have to also be nanosized and that’s not very much fuel. So if they can’t carry a fuel reserve with them then the fuel is going to have to come from the surroundings.

      Engineers are going to have to be very clever to work out how to power these bots in a renewable way. But there are some systems we can look at for ideas. I mean, plants and bacteria are already making energy from their surroundings, so it is physically possible. However, we don’t have a great track record when it comes to imitating nature. Just look at the absolute best walking robots we have managed to produce. It’s considered impressive if they can walk slowly up some stairs. My grandmother can walk slowly up some stairs. So I don’t know how we’ll do with that.

      Perhaps a shortcut would be to hi-jack the existing bacteria and reprogram it to our purposes!

      Bottom line; Controlling nano-bots is not going to be like controlling a remote control helicopter. Bots will have to be custom built to purpose and we will need to be extremely clever about it.

    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 16 Nov 2013:

      Hey Heisenberg,

      So there is work being done on nanobots that can deliver drugs to certain cells in your body. The nanobots are tiny cages, they are 100 microns long and 40 microns wide .The nickel-coated microbots are steered wirelessly by electromagnetic fields. Because they are externally controlled they can carry drugs to exactly where the body needs it, including to sensitive places like brains or eyes. The brain and eyes are particularly hard to treat due to the presence of the Blood Brain Barrier. The Blood Brain Barrier is like a fence for your brain that stops things that would harm the brain from getting in. And this is why it is so hard to treat diseases which affect the brain like Alzheimer’s disease. So these nanobots could potentially prove very beneficial for these types of diseases.

      These seem really like they will revolutionise healthcare, however these nanobots are decades away from ever being tested in humans.

      Hope this helps 🙂

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