From: hal@finney.org
Date: Fri Nov 24 2000 - 00:30:10 MST
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1037000/1037730.stm
>
> The first microscopic "helicopters", which could one day carry out medical
> tasks inside the body, have been built and test-driven by scientists.
> The devices, no bigger than a virus particle, could eventually move around
> the human body, ministering to its needs or dispensing drugs.
>
> The metal rotors of the tiny machines are powered by the body's natural fuel,
> a chemical called ATP.
According to the analysis in Robert Freitas' book Nanomedicine, rotors
don't work well at the cellular scale. The fluid dynamics are wrong.
Propellors rely on turbulence and vortices but it is hard to get that
at the ultra-small scale.
Hal
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