Nano Car Racing: A Live Race Under The Microscope

First Posted: Mar 28, 2017 06:08 AM EDT
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Nanotechnology has gained a lot of attention in the past few decades. Researchers across the world are working toward the development of nanoparticles that may find applications in diverse fields, including medicine, electronics and mechanical engineering. However, not many would have imagined that someday nanotechnology will enter into the world of professional car racing. Surprisingly, it has.

Researchers from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France, will be hosting a first of its kind race for nano cars (molecule-based cars). The cars are made up of a few hundred atoms and cannot be seen by the naked eye. Therefore, the race will be going on under the microscope, and the microscope present in CNRS is the only one that can stage four simultaneous races (experiments).

Therefore, "The international molecule-car race" will have four teams, each with its own nano car. The race track is about 100 nanometers in length and is made up of gold nanoparticles, Live Mint reported.

The four race teams will be responsible for setting the nano cars under the microscope's lens, observing them and maneuvering them during the entire period. The cars will be stimulated by small electric impulses that will be provided by the microscope tips.

The race is scheduled for April 28 and is expected to last 36 hours. The researchers have made all necessary arrangements, and the microscopic race will be streaming live on the Nanocar Race YouTube channel.

According to Digital Trends, the researchers came up with this ingenious idea as a method to promote the concept of nanotechnology in a fun and entertaining way, so that more people can relate to it. Superficially, it may seem that the whole nano car racing is just a fun science experiment. However, the pioneer researchers behind it believe that it is a global way of staging a crucial experiment that can highlight the potential of nanotechnology in the development of similar vehicles and/or instruments in the future.

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