back to article STEALTHY NANOROBOTS dress up as viruses, prepare to sneak into YOUR BODY

US scientists have tackled two main stumbling blocks to the development of injectable nanomachines for medical and scientific use. The breakthroughs were announced in a paper entitled "Virus-Inspired Membrane Encapsulation of DNA Nanostructures To Achieve In Vivo Stability", published in the journal ACS Nano on Tuesday. …

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  1. John B
    Mushroom

    Gives me some itchings of Hugh Howey's Silo series...

    1. Katie Saucey
      Mushroom

      Gives me some itchings of Hugh Howey's Silo series...

      ...Alastair Reynolds, Century Rain for me.

      1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

        Hehe, more like Ben Franklin rapping his knuckles on a key hanging from a string of a kite before the leading edge of a thunderstorm.

        This science is in its most fetal stages. The "machine" can't do anything but sit there stupidly. The lipid membrane protecting the non-functional device.

        Give it a half century, it might actually go somewhere.

        Pity, it'd be *great* to have something workable within my lifetime.

  2. Martin Budden Silver badge
    Go

    micelle?

    So it's basically a micelle supported by an internal DNA scaffold? A simple thing, even so it's impressive to be able to fabricate something so small.

  3. Queasy Rider

    Next...

    CIA finds a way to weaponize. Uses for assassination.

    1. Cliff

      Re: Next...

      Sadly, for every dollar someone spend on peaceful civil uses, another dollar is being spent on weaponising it somewhere somehow.

      1. DocJames
        Unhappy

        Re: Next...

        "...another $20 are spent on weaponising it"

        FTFY.

  4. Mark 85

    Sneaks in but does it sneak out?

    Interesting that it can be put in and not be destroyed but what happens after the payload has been delivered? Does it dissolve or break apart? Is it filtered out by the kidneys, etc.? Or does it just hang around and possibly create another set of issues?

    Even so, this is in it's infancy and looks promising.

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Still astonishing how *slow* progress is in this field.

    Viruses were imaged in the 1930's. "Engines of Creation" was written in 1986 and only now does some think this is good idea.

    The very slow start of what might be the end of the beginning.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Medical and scientific use

    "US scientists have tackled two main stumbling blocks to the development of injectable nanomachines for medical and scientific use."

    What gets the most funding, medical and scientific or military. This is most likely funded by DARPA for use as a "biological" weapon.

  7. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    We are Dyslexic of Borg

    Your ass will be laminated.

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