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BBC NEWS
Chemical brain controls nanobots
By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A tiny chemical "brain" which could one day act as a remote control
for swarms of nano-machines has been invented.

The molecular device - just two billionths of a metre across - was
able to control eight of the microscopic machines simultaneously in a
test.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists
say it could also be used to boost the processing power of future
computers.

Many experts have high hopes for nano-machines in treating disease.

"If [in the future] you want to remotely operate on a tumour you might
want to send some molecular machines there," explained Dr Anirban
Bandyopadhyay of the International Center for Young Scientists,
Tsukuba, Japan.

"But you cannot just put them into the blood and [expect them] to go
to the right place."

Dr Bandyopadhyay believes his device may offer a solution. One day
they may be able to guide the nanobots through the body and control
their functions, he said.

"That kind of device simply did not exist; this is the first time we
have created a nano-brain," he told BBC News.

Computer brain

The machine is made from 17 molecules of the chemical duroquinone.
Each one is known as a "logic device".

They each resemble a ring with four protruding spokes that can be
independently rotated to represent four different states.

One duroquinone molecule sits at the centre of a ring formed by the
remaining 16. All are connected by chemical bonds, known as hydrogen
bonds.

The state of the control molecule at the centre is switched by a
scanning tunnelling microscope (STM).

These large machines are a standard part of the nanotechnologist's
tool kit, and allow the viewing and manipulation of atomic surfaces.

Using the STM, the researchers showed they could change the central
molecule's state and simultaneously switch the states of the
surrounding 16.

"We instruct only one molecule and it simultaneously and logically
instructs 16 others at a time," said Dr Bandyopadhyay.

The configuration allows four billion different possible combinations
of outcome.

The two nanometre diameter structure was inspired by the parallel
communication of glial cells inside a human brain, according to the
team.

Robot control

To test the control unit, the researchers simulated docking eight
existing nano-machines to the structure, creating a "nano-factory" or
a kind of "chemical swiss army knife".

The attached devices, created by other research groups, included the
"world's tiniest elevator", a molecular platform that can be raised or
lowered on command.

The device is about two and a half nanometres (billionths of a metre)
high, and the lift moves less than one nanometre up and down.

All eight machines simultaneously responded to a single instruction in
the simulation.

"We have clear cut evidence that we can control those machines," said
Dr Bandyopadhyay.

This "one-to-many" communication and the device's ability to act as a
central control unit also raises the possibility of using the device
in future computers, he said.

Machines built using devices such as this would be able to process 16
bits of information simultaneously.

Current silicon Central Processing Units (CPUs) can only carry out one
instruction at a time, albeit thousands of times per second.

The researchers say they have already built faster machines, capable
of 256 simultaneous operations, and have designed one capable of 1024.

However, according to Professor Andrew Adamatzky of the University of
the West England (UWE), making a workable computer would be very
difficult at the moment.

"As with other implementations of unconventional computers the
application is very limited, because they operate [it] using scanning
tunnel microscopy," he said.

But, he said, the work is promising.

"I am sure with time such molecular CPUs can be integrated in
molecular robots, so they will simply interact with other molecular
parts autonomously."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7288426.stm

Published: 2008/03/11 10:32:53 GMT

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