Smallest-Ever Human-Made Flying Structure Is A Winged Microchip, Scientists Say
It's neither a bird nor a plane, but a winged microchip as small as a grain of sand that can be carried by the wind as it monitors such things as pollution levels or the spread of airborne diseases.
The tiny microfliers, whose development by engineers at Northwestern University was detailed in an article published by Nature this week, are being billed as the smallest-ever human-made flying structures.
The devices don't have a motor; engineers were instead inspired by the maple tree's free-falling propeller seeds — technically known as samara fruit. The engineers optimized the aerodynamics of the microfliers so that "as these structures fall through the air, the interaction between the air and those wings cause a rotational motion that creates a very stable, slow-falling velocity," said John A. Rogers, who led the development of the devices.
[...] The wind would scatter the tiny microchips, which could sense their surrounding environments and collect information. The scientists say they could potentially be used to monitor for contamination, surveil populations or even track diseases.
Three-dimensional electronic microfliers inspired by wind-dispersed seeds
Journal Reference:
Bong Hoon Kim, Kan Li, Jin-Tae Kim, et al. Three-dimensional electronic microfliers inspired by wind-dispersed seeds, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03847-y)
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday September 24 2021, @01:23AM (3 children)
Though of course, the original goo didn't need to bother with any seeking, since it swarmed everywhere.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 24 2021, @07:22AM (2 children)
You may imagine a Jeff Goldblum line from Jurassic Park at this point if you so desire.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 24 2021, @09:25AM
No need for nano-particles for covid-19, 5G is more than enough.
The vaccines, tho', ... could benefit from sands of grain jumping to the throat of unsuspecting ... ummm.. innocents and introducing foreign substances into their precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice.
You may imagine a Sterling Hayden telling how he denies the women his life essence if you so desire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25 2021, @12:05AM
brundlefly would be funnier
(Score: 3, Insightful) by weilawei on Friday September 24 2021, @01:25AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @01:40AM
Maybe we can get an edible version?
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Friday September 24 2021, @02:54PM
Of course, one countermeasure to the scattering of tiny microchips is to deploy an army of Roombas to sweep them up.
--
"Begun the nano-bot war has!"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @01:34AM
Another datapoint for remaining sapients.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Mockingbird on Friday September 24 2021, @01:44AM (2 children)
This is about the size that could be inhaled? And then trapped in mucous, and then expelled through the nasal orfices in a Great Arklesiezure?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @02:59AM
Who needs vaccines when you can release the microchips in the air for people to breathe in? Bill Gates must be kicking himself.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday September 25 2021, @03:25AM
That was actually my first thought too... what happens when people inevitably inhale these things, which are likely to embed in the lungs (and sinuses, and maybe around the eyes) rather than get coughed back out... exactly the problem with asbestos. Yeah, we need more particulate pollution.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Subsentient on Friday September 24 2021, @01:45AM
At last, computers I can snort by the line! I'll take a dime bag.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @02:55AM (2 children)
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mykl on Friday September 24 2021, @06:27AM (1 child)
This.
I saw this article earlier today and was super-annoyed when I read it. The headline clearly says "Flying" when the article content further down clearly says that these things are not flying at all (just gliding).
I call clickbait.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25 2021, @07:01AM
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Friday September 24 2021, @03:49AM (4 children)
So they're just going to come right out and say it? Not "it's for finding lost pets" or "it's for monitoring traffic conditions" or even "we'll sell the data to advertisers"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @03:56AM
Hey, gotta get funding somehow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @05:49AM
Schizos gonna be on microchip watch
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday September 24 2021, @05:36PM (1 child)
...and that is why Bill Gates is putting 5g chips in the vaccine. :P
At least my cell phone reception has never been better.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25 2021, @01:36AM
Why the outdated delusion that it is YOUR cell phone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @04:00AM (1 child)
How are they powered, and how are they programmed? I suppose we'll have to wait until they start dropping them to catch a few and find out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @04:58AM
They're like tiny spores that land everywhere. The ones that find fertile soil turn into killer zombie robots. Well, that's the 2.0 version anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @09:00AM (2 children)
I can't find the book right now, but I'm certain that Isaac Asimov presented this idea in one of his Foundation Series books, where Hari Seldon was surveilled by some sort of dust/particles/… that was everywhere.
(Score: 2, Informative) by shrewdsheep on Friday September 24 2021, @12:48PM
The idea was also featured in "A deepness in the sky" by Vernor Vinge. He correctly pointed out that the power supply has to be external, i.e. some sort of EM-field. Maybe, with 6G these things can harvest enough energy from moblie phone communciation implying that where there is a crowd there is surveillance.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday September 24 2021, @07:23PM
Stanislav Lem's Peace on Earth also contains that concept, as far as I remember. Though that dust could do a bit more than just surveillance.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @03:16PM (1 child)
So how much cancer does this cause if you inhale a swarm? If you inhale one?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @07:44PM
You inhale rice sized objects regularly?