Nobel chemistry trio's tiny motors boast big potential

PARIS – Molecular machines, which earned their inventors the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday, are a fraction of the width of a human hair but strong enough to move things 10,000 times their size. The devices have yet to find practical use in nanoscale engineering, but scientists look forward to the day when microscopic motors or delivery vehicles will be omnipresent, whether in the human body or a microchip. Inspired by natural proteins, which act as biological "machines" within cells, synthetic nanobots can be prodded by light or changes in temperature to produce mechanical motion. Their use in localized drug delivery is "probably the most short-term achievable" application, according to Nicholas White of the Australian National University's Research School of Chemistry. The tiny machines, constructed from groups of molecules, may be used to protect the human body from exposure to the toxic effects of certain medicines, such as those used in chemotherapy.