Computer Directs Swarms of Bacteria to Build Pyramid

[n2doc]

The micro-workers could one day carry drugs to tumors and operate microscopic factories.

Tue Mar 30, 2010 03:11 AM ET | content provided by Erico Guizzo, IEEE Spectrum

More than 5,000 bacteria worked together to stack tiny epoxy bricks into a pyramidal structure.
NanoRobotics Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal


Researchers at the NanoRobotics Laboratory of the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, in Canada, are putting swarms of bacteria to work, using them to perform micro-manipulations and even propel microrobots.

Led by Professor Sylvain Martel, the researchers want to use flagellated bacteria to carry drugs into tumors, act as sensing agents for detecting pathogens, and operate micro-factories that could perform pharmacological and genetic tests.

They also want to use the bacteria as micro-workers for building things. Things like a tiny step pyramid.

The video below shows some 5,000 bacteria moving like a swarm of little fish, working together to transport tiny epoxy bricks and assemble a pyramidal structure -- all in 15 minutes. The video was presented at IROS last year, along with a wonderfully titled paper, "A Robotic Micro-Assembly Process Inspired By the Construction of the Ancient Pyramids and Relying on Several Thousands of Flagellated Bacteria Acting as Workers."

http://news.discovery.com/tech/computer-directs-bacteria-build-pyramid.html

ok, how long before a tiny bacterium with a long white beard sends a message "Pharaoh, set my people free!"?

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Flagellated bacteria?

Oh, the suffering!

Quick! We must hold a Concert for our oppressed Brethren, Sistren, and Hermaphroditren!

--d!
"We are the Germs ... We are the Microbes ..."

[WheelWalker]

2. +1

[JoeyT]

6. Too late

The Flagellants were declared heretical hundreds of years ago.
I think we're supposed to burn them at the stake now.

[zbdent]

8. Didn't Flagellant become the first to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific?

Or was that Flatulent?

[elehhhhna]

14. oh, the humanity! or bacterianity. whatever.

[annabanana]

3. amazing stuff. . .

I wish people were as smart re consequences as they are re manipulation...

[Warren DeMontague]

4. I was gonna say;

just in time for Passover.

[xultar]

5. Sounds like an eppy of The Outer Limits starring Bo Bridges

[cojoel]

7. All hail plankton!

[zbdent]

9. He accepts your worship ...

[CommonSensePLZ]

10. Let's not use it for evil! nt

[NeedleCast]

11. Cool

thanks for posting.

[jberryhill]

12. The Lord Says, "Let My Microbes Go!"

Yah, it's all well and good until some microbial Moses comes along...

[guitar man]

13. wow

So now their not just taking directions from Faux Noise anymore.

:rofl: