Baby You Can Drive My Nanometre-Long Car

And it's not even nearly as ridiculous-looking as a Smart car.

Researchers from the Netherlands have created the world's smallest car out of a single molecule, and managed to get it to "drive" a distance of sixth-billionths of a metre. At just a nanometre long, the brainchild of University of Groningen scientists is 60,000 times thinner than a human hair, and boasts one of the weakest motors ever created – a single jolt of electricity. Little more than a frame with a four wheels made up out of a few atoms each, the scientists were able to get the nano-car to move six times its length by blasting electrons at it. Via Der Spiegel:

The research team was able to propel the nanocar six billionths of a meter by firing electrons at it with a tunnelling electron microscope. The "electronic and vibrational excitation" of the jolts changes the way the atoms of the "wheels" interact with those on a copper surface, the reports says, propelling the car forward in a single direction. The only problem, it would seem, is getting all the wheels to turn in the same direction every time.

Of course, this kind of vehicle isn't about to transport anybody anywhere anytime soon, but the team hopes their work can be put to use in developing better nanotechnology. And heck, even if doesn't, it's pretty boss to be the owner of the world's smallest-ever vehicle.