Some say bigger is better, but researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will tell you that when it comes to tech, smaller things are far more impressive.
This month, MIT researchers announced they invented a way to shrink objects to nanoscale -- smaller than what you can see with a microscope -- using a laser. That means they can take any simple structure and reduce it to one 1,000th of its original size.
The miniaturizing technology, called
"implosion fabrication," could be applied to anything from developing smaller microscope and cell phone lenses to creating tiny robots that improve everyday life.
"People have been trying to invent better equipment to make smaller nanomaterials for years," said neurotechnology professor Edward Boyden, the lead researcher, in a statement. "There are all kinds of things you can do with this."
It's a far cry from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids," but the new method has plenty of cool real-world uses. For example, scientists are exploring ways to add tiny robotic particles to cancer drugs that can seek out only the cancerous cells. And forget microchips -- MIT says this technology could be used to develop even smaller "nanochip" electronics.
The best part? MIT's cutting-edge technique simply requires a laser and an absorbent gel (commonly used in baby diapers) -- materials that most biology and engineering labs already have.
