WHAT do you get if you take a set of miniature silicon helicopter blades, drop them into a beaker of water and blast them with sound waves? A remote-controlled underwater "bubble rotor" that could be used to manipulate individual cells.
The rotor, developed by Daniel Attinger of Columbia University in New York, consists of a piece of silicon, 60 micrometres wide, cut into two crossed blades. It can be made to spin by placing it near a bubble of air in water and hitting the bubble with ultrasound waves.
Although the bubble rotor itself is 100 times bigger than ordinary cells, if you attach a carbon nanotube shaft to drill into individual cells, you can learn more about how they respond to stimuli, Attinger says. The rotor could also be used in microfabrication: hundreds of spinning shafts could be assembled to form a moving "carpet" that guides tiny mechanical parts ...
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