Star Trek: Voyager This year marks its 25th anniversary, and the show still inspires fans, including some Dutch physicists who have certainly created the smallest model of the USS Voyager.
Voyager small… really small
Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands are working on synthetic “microswimmers”, which are substances comparable in size to bacteria and usually 1-10 –m, which can propel themselves through liquids. Much of the work on microswimmers has been spherical objects, but Leiden physicists are using new nanoscript photonic professional printers to create more complex create objects.
In a paper entitled “Catalytically Propelled 3D Printed Colloidal Microswimmers” published last month in the journal Soft Matter, the team outlined their recent efforts, including small intraperid-class starships.
(Soft matter)
These microswimmers can propel themselves through liquids using chemical reactions, reacting to hydrogen peroxide solution through their platinum coating. So if you want to be technically this little USS Voyager can really swim well ….
The researchers hope that microswimmers can be developed that can perform complex behaviors that can be used in many practical applications, including drug treatment. Maybe one day a little starship will be flying around your bloodstream to protect your life.
(H / T PC Gamer)
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