MIT invents method to shrink objects to nanoscale using basic lab equipment

More news from the future. Ant Man here we come.

This month, MIT researchers announced they invented a way to shrink objects to nanoscale -- smaller than what you can see with a microscope -- using a laser. That means they can take any simple structure and reduce it to one 1,000th of its original size.

The miniaturizing technology, called "implosion fabrication," could be applied to anything from developing smaller microscope and cell phone lenses to creating tiny robots that improve everyday life.

This would simply be some amazing technology.

The researchers say this technology could become easily accessible in the future; it's even something you could use at home or in a school because all the materials are nontoxic.

"It's pretty hard to imagine right now all the things we can make with this," Rodriques said.

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This is crazy because I just got through watching Travelers on Netflix and the they kept track of Archive's, which are records of all historical events with nanobots in the bloodstream.

Imagine having nanobots in the blood that fight diseases and detects them early. Nanobots in the blood that prevent a heart attack. You get an alert on your phone that says you just had a heart attack, we alerted your Doctor, enjoy the rest of your day.

This tech will have all kinds of uses.

Well, I wouldn't exactly call it "nontoxic". The nature of it might change slightly in the hands of a common troll.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)Down here in Disneyworld you can go practice for the experience in their Shrunk The Kids exhibit.

I just want an Oliphant that fits in muh hand.

Finally!!! A cure for abnormally large penises! I’ve been waiting for this.

a reply to: neoholographic

Then imagine your tech savvy ex or a tyrannical government hacking the nanobots, directing them to attack your white blood cells or eye tissue.

I think I just gave myself nightmares.

Will it work on peoples heads?

About every politician the world over could use their heads cut down to size.

Or how about will it work on OUR National Debt?

a reply to: neoholographic

I think calling it a "method to shrink objects" is misleading.

It is a fabrication method using a supporting material that can expand/shrink by a factor of thousand. Like the stuff used in diapers for example.

They create a polymer scaffold, attach object particles to it, let the scaffold shrink by adding an acid, producing the much smaller object.

a reply to: moebius

Here's how it works: Using a laser, researchers make a structure with absorbent gel -- akin to writing with a pen in 3D. Then, they can attach any material -- metal, DNA, or tiny "quantum dot" particles -- to the structure. Finally, they shrink the structure to a miniscule size.

"It's a bit like film photography," explained graduate student researcher Daniel Oran. "A latent image is formed by exposing a sensitive material in a gel to light. Then, you can develop that latent image into a real image by attaching another material, silver, afterwards."

MIT engineers devised a way to create 3-D nanoscale objects by patterning a larger structure with a laser and then shrinking it. This image shows a complex structure prior to shrinking. MIT engineers devised a way to create 3-D nanoscale objects by patterning a larger structure with a laser and then shrinking it. This image shows a complex structure prior to shrinking.

In fact, Oran is a trained photographer, and the project began in 2014 when he and graduate student Samuel Rodriques, who has a background in physics, decided to collaborate.

The team discovered the method by reversing a common technique, originally developed by Boyden to enlarge images of brain tissue. Called "expansion microscopy," that process involves injecting a material into a gel and then making it larger and therefore easier to see.

It looks to me like they are shrinking an image, not an actual object.

a reply to: neoholographic

after reading engines of creation by Eric K Drexler I believe anything is possible once we invent nano machines !

a reply to: toms54

From what I understand of it, they shrink a 3D structure with the elements of what they want make small attached to that structure. When the structure is reduced the elements "converge" into the new small object.

a reply to: neoholographic

"This tech will have all kinds of uses."

Indeed, but chances are for control purpose, before any others.

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: toms54

From what I understand of it, they shrink a 3D structure with the elements of what they want make small attached to that structure. When the structure is reduced the elements "converge" into the new small object.

Team invents method to shrink objects to the nanoscale

Yes. The gel framework shrinks but the objects attached to it do not. “It could be a quantum dot, it could be a piece of DNA, it could be a gold nanoparticle.” These are already tiny. Like you said, the elements "converge" and retain their relative position but do not themselves shrink.

When I first read the CNN article, I got the impression it was just a 3D image. You hit the nail on the head.

It is not a shrink ray.

I couldn't read the whole article for some reason but is there a way to make the object normal size again?

Also if you use this this you are wasting material by shrinking it 1000 fold... right? Wouldn't it be a waste of ore or something?

If it could grow stuff then they would solve lack of materials over night.

Imagine the possibilities...

Someday?

originally posted by: watchandwait410
I couldn't read the whole article for some reason but is there a way to make the object normal size again?

Pffft -Monsanto and Disney were doing that 50 years ago

Size is a factor of acceleration.

a reply to: ausername

Imagine...but i can see alot of things that were once safe become deadly at that size.

a reply to: watchandwait410

the system they use doesnt shrink large marco objects to nano scale, what they have done instead is find a way to scale down objects into the nano world quicker than building them from the atom up in 2d layers into 3d layers

its just a quicker way of making 3d structures

Existing techniques for creating nanostructures are limited in what they can accomplish. Etching patterns onto a surface with light can produce 2-D nanostructures but doesn’t work for 3-D structures. It is possible to make 3-D nanostructures by gradually adding layers on top of each other, but this process is slow and challenging. And, while methods exist that can directly 3-D print nanoscale objects, they are restricted to specialized materials like polymers and plastics, which lack the functional properties necessary for many applications.

Furthermore, they can only generate self-supporting structures. (The technique can yield a solid pyramid, for example, but not a linked chain or a hollow sphere.) To overcome these limitations, Boyden and his students decided to adapt a technique that his lab developed a few years ago for high-resolution imaging of brain tissue. This technique, known as expansion microscopy, involves embedding tissue into a hydrogel and then expanding it, allowing for high resolution imaging with a regular microscope. Hundreds of research groups in biology and medicine are now using expansion microscopy, since it enables 3-D visualization of cells and tissues with ordinary hardware. By reversing this process, the researchers found that they could create large-scale objects embedded in expanded hydrogels and then shrink them to the nanoscale, an approach that they call “implosion fabrication.” As they did for expansion microscopy, the researchers used a very absorbent material made of polyacrylate, commonly found in diapers, as the scaffold for their nanofabrication process.

The scaffold is bathed in a solution that contains molecules of fluorescein, which attach to the scaffold when they are activated by laser light. Using two-photon microscopy, which allows for precise targeting of points deep within a structure, the researchers attach fluorescein molecules to specific locations within the gel. The fluorescein molecules act as anchors that can bind to other types of molecules that the researchers add. “You attach the anchors where you want with light, and later you can attach whatever you want to the anchors,” Boyden says. “It could be a quantum dot, it could be a piece of DNA, it could be a gold nanoparticle.”