The BBC are reporting that boffins have made and driven world's smallest electric car.
It is smaller than a Segeway and a C5, smaller than a minimoto and smaller even than Barbie’s least pimped ride. To be honest they don’t come much smaller than a car made of a single, carefully designed molecule.
This molecule has four limbs that serve as wheels. These, rotate when the tiniest of electric currents is passed through them; that is they change shape as they absorb electrons and this can drive the car forward.
The "batteries" of the electric car are an incredibly fine point of metal that ends in just an atom or two. As the tip draws near the molecule, electrons jump into it and with 10 electric bursts to rotate the ‘wheels’, the car was made to move a fairly pointless six billionths of a metre.
Why bother?
On a more serious note this is a rather nice demonstration of useful principles in nanotechnology that could have real world applications one day.
OK I get this – its wonderful, useful, has endless applications and will make someone who isn’t me very rich. It may just save the world but please ……
…..it is not a Car!
CM(:-(|)
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