The current edition of the New Scientist magazine describes the project led by Eldrid Sequeira, a nanotechnology researcher at Utah State University in Logan. His team plan to attach swimming bacteria cells to vanes mounted on top of a silicon disc sealed inside a tiny liquid-filled cylinder. Their natural movement would push the disc around, turning a shaft and generating mechanical energy. Bacteria as the main power source for nano-motors? Sounds strange, but it works for motors only few tens of micrometers in diameter. The Salmonella typhimurium used in this experiment has a (relatively) long lifespan of about an hour without food. Later projects will use only the bacteria's flagella and their drive mechanisms. This way researchers hope to go all the way to the 100-nanometre range. The same article mentions other research efforts: MicroTEC of Duisburg, Germany, that uses an external magnetic field as the power source for the nanobots, while Renaissance Technologies, based in Lexington, Kentucky, plans to begin building medical robots in the millimeter range within a year.

Conjugated Polymer Group at Linkping University, Sweden, studies conjugated polymers and ionically conducting polymers, new materials for electronics and electrochemistry. They developed a microrobot arm that can be individually controlled. The arm consists of an "elbow", a "wrist", and a hand with 2-4 fingers. This 670 m small robot is designed to manipulate single cells inside the human body, and can pick up, lift, move, and place micrometer-size objects within an area of about 250 micrometers by 100 micrometers. More details are available in the article "Microrobots for Micrometer-Size Objects in Aqueous Media: Potential Tools for Single Cell Manipulation", published by Science magazine (Vol 288, pp. 2335-2338).

Going a step further with the applications of medical nanomachines, Robert A. Freitas Jr. from Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, (Palo Alto, California) describes respirocytes, artificial red cells that are able to deliver 236 times more oxygen to the tissues per unit volume than natural red cells. This spherical, 1-micron diamondoid 1000-atm pressure vessel will contain an onboard nanocomputer and numerous chemical and pressure sensors remotely reprogrammable by the physician via externally applied acoustic signals. More details can be found in the research paper published at the Foresight Web site, or in the Freitas' new book, addressing the technical issues involved in the medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanodevice design.

Carlo Montemagno and George Bachand of the Cornell University in New York recently described the first integrated molecular motor, a molecule of the enzyme ATPase (part of an enzyme that produces energy in all living cells) coupled to a metallic substrate that ran for 40 minutes at around 4 revolutions per second. The key organic molecules were produced by genetically modified Escherichia coli bacteria. Further genetic manipulation could produce molecules with tiny propellers and other useful micro structures.

At the other side of the globe, the microscopic robot for inspection of piping systems is being developed by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Matsushita Research Institute Tokyo, Inc. and Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. under the management of the Micromachine Center. The Micromachine Center itself was established to conduct research and development into micromachines, to collect and provide information, and to foster exchange and cooperation with organizations in Japan and abroad. MMC is focusing their research efforts on advanced maintenance technologies for power plants, microfactory technologies and various medical applications.

Quite a few companies feel that now is the right moment moment to develop and commercialize nanotechnology. Zyvex, a company based in Richardson, Texas, is the first research and development company focused on developing an assembler for molecular nanotechnology. In spite of being a small company, with less than $20M in funding, Zyvex plans to achieve its goal in less than 10 years. They are making a significant investment in MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), as an enabling technology for development of molecular nanotechnology. Their Zybot Mark I is built to manipulate MEMS-scale components with 5 Degrees Of Freedom. A similar approach is followed by Molecular Robotics and other commercial companies that are creating products that incorporate "enabling technologies," that will later lead the way to molecular machine systems.