DNA nanobots can exponentially self-replicate

Nanoscale "robots" made of DNA that rapidly self-replicate could be harnessed to manufacture drugs or other chemicals inside the body, say researchers. Feng Zhou at New York University and his colleagues created the tiny machines, which are just 100 nanometres across, using four strands of DNA. The nanorobots are held in a solution with these DNA-strand raw materials, which they arrange into copies of themselves one at a time by using their own structure as a scaffold. The team didn't respond to a request for comment, but say in their paper that their nanobots are capable of exponential reproduction. Andrew Surman at King's College London, who wasn't involved in the research, says that the nanobots are a step forward in creating machines from DNA that could manufacture drugs or chemicals, or even act as rudimentary robots or computers.