We tend to think that the bigger something is, the better.
But in the world of nanotechnology the opposite is true - and scientists from Tufts University in Massachusetts have just claimed some major bragging rights.
They’ve built an electric motor that consists of a single molecule, measuring a billionth of a metre, or just one nanometer across. To put that into perspective, a human hair is 60,000 nanometers in diameter.
Small world: The molecule that was rotated is marked in yellow, with the tip of the microscope represented by the grey molecules
Their achievement is expected to be recognised by Guinness World Records, as the current record for the smallest electrical motor stands at 200 nanometers.
The team, led by associate professor of chemistry Charles Sykes, managed to rotate a single butyl methyl sulfide molecule back and forth, using some very exotic technology.
A scanning tunnelling microscope, which number just 100 in the U.S., zapped the molecule with an electric current from a tip measuring just one or two molecules across, making it spin.
But it was only possible to do this at the mind-boggingly low temperature of 5 Kelvin – or minus 450F.
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