Researchers Can Now Print Robots Too Small to See With the Naked Eye

A remarkable new study out of the University of Colorado in Boulder has not just created microscopic 3D constructs with precisely desired shapes, but it has further made these constructs controllable.

It's a breakthrough that could have big implications for doctors and microbiologists, in particular, who have always struggled to create tools that can act on the tiny features they study.

Our History of Hijacking Nature’s Robots

Up until very recently, any micro-scale active element available to scientists had exactly one origin: biological evolution. CRISPR is probably the most famous example, but everything from DNA synthesis to drug delivery has the exact same background. We have not historically been able to create objects on the molecular scale without exploiting the molecular-scale processes that already existed in life.

Now, techniques originally created for the fabrication of microprocessors could help.

Photolithography can be used to create features small enough to ...