Robots have been fastest evolvers, nanotechnology is catching up. Robots have already reached the stage where they can self-assemble, and now, it is a team of scientists for the Columbian University that have made self-assembly possible amid nanogears. Production of nanomachines is expensive and painstaking, thus this self-assembling trait vested in nanogears by laying a sheet of metal on a special layer of polymer, the future could definitely play host to cheaper and faster production of such machines and materials.
The copper sheet placed on polymer, which expands with heat, shrinks comparatively slower than the polymer layer, and thus is compelled to bend with the briskly shrinking polymer, in event creating regularly spaced teeth in the polymer, effectively making a microscopic gear. In experiments the team of scientists has made different types of gears, all at the six-to-25 millimeter range, but they intend to go even tinier with their nanogears.
Via: NewScientist/PopSci
