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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, 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.