Scientists Build Tiny Vehicles for Molecular Passengers

Scientists at Rice University have built molecular vehicles so small that more than 20,000 of them could sit side-by-side on a human hair.

The fleet consists of nanocars, nanotrucks capable of carrying small-molecule payloads, and trimers that pivot on their three axes. All of them roll on buckyballs, which are 60-atom, soccer-ball-shaped spheres of pure carbon. Each axis pivots up and down independently to allow the vehicles to negotiation atomic potholes and mounds.

The work, which was first described earlier this month in the online version of the journal Nano Letters, is the fruit of more than eight years of research led by Prof. James M. Tour into systems that could be used to build structures molecule-by-molecule.

"This is it, you can’t make anything smaller to transport atoms around," Professor Tour said.

By BARNABY J. FEDER

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/21/technology/21cnd-nano.html