Scientists have developed a pair of robotic hands that are both strong and sensitive. The tweezers can guide themselves to pick up and move individual cells without damaging them, and have a grip that can be as slight as 20 nanoNewtons of force. In fact, so advanced are the little grippers, that they can be hitched up to a microscope and, with the right software, function without human control. More below.
Man, you’re going to need to have a tiny butt to use this toilet—less than a nanometer wide, to be specific. Taken with an electron microscope by nanotechnologist Kaito Takahashi, this pic not only shows the intricacies of objects that can be constructed at the nanoscale, but it also demonstrates the astonishing smallness of the world you see at 15,000X magnification. This photo won the Most Bizarre award in the Bizarre/Beautiful Micrograph Contest at the 49th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication. Check out the gallery for more crazy nanoshots. [Zyvex Labs, via Wired]
