{"id":797,"date":"2015-11-18T14:51:30","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T14:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/?p=797"},"modified":"2019-04-10T19:48:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T19:48:46","slug":"scientists-created-microscopic-nanosubmarines-powered-ultraviolet-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/scientists-created-microscopic-nanosubmarines-powered-ultraviolet-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Have Created Microscopic Nanosubmarines Powered By Ultraviolet Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers at Rice University, led by Rice lab chemist James Tour, have developed what they are calling &#8220;nanosubmarines&#8221;, which are powered by ultraviolet light and microscopic in size.<\/p>\n<p>Considered a potential breakthrough in nanotechnology, the nanosubmarines, through utilizing &#8220;molecular motors&#8221;, are capable of traveling through solution at what the researchers say are breakneck speeds.<\/p>\n<p>While the technology is still in its early stages of development, the nanosubmarines each consist of merely one molecule with 244 atoms.<\/p>\n<p>Their ultraviolet light-powered motors run at more than 1 million RPM, engaging a tail-like propeller that moves the subs forward at a rate of 18 nanometers per revolution.<\/p>\n<p>While it may not sound like much, that kind of speed translates to a breakneck speed considering the scale, at a pace of just under 1 inch per second.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are the fastest-moving molecules ever seen in solution,\u201d Tour <a href=\"https:\/\/news.rice.edu\/2015\/11\/16\/rice-makes-light-driven-nanosubmarine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told Rice University News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is akin to a person walking across a basketball court with 1,000 people throwing basketballs at him,\u201d Tour added.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rice University News<\/em> explained how the molecular motors work:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The motors, which operate more like a bacteria\u2019s flagellum than a propeller, complete each revolution in four steps. When excited by light, the double bond that holds the rotor to the body becomes a single bond, allowing it to rotate a quarter step. As the motor seeks to return to a lower energy state, it jumps adjacent atoms for another quarter turn. The process repeats as long as the light is on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The most obvious application for the nanosubmarines is helping delivery targeted medical therapies through human blood but that is a long way off considering the subs cannot be steered yet and are still in the early stages of development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first step, and we\u2019ve proven the concept. Now we need to explore opportunities and potential applications,\u201d lead author on the researchers\u2019 paper Victor Garc\u00eda-L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers at Rice University, led by Rice lab chemist James Tour, have developed what they are calling &#8220;nanosubmarines&#8221;, which are powered by ultraviolet light and microscopic in size. Considered a potential breakthrough in nanotechnology, the nanosubmarines, through utilizing &#8220;molecular motors&#8221;, are capable of traveling through solution at what the researchers say are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58,59],"tags":[447,446,449,448],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2901,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/2901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.despatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}