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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
WASHINGTON, JAN 15: A team of US scientists has succeeded in making moving parts out of a few strands of DNA which could help perform intricate jobs not possible with available mechanical instruments.
The development is viewed as a step towards building tiny `machines' that could, in future, perform intricate tasks like building computer circuits and clearing clogged blood vessels in the brain, the science journal Nature reports.
``The hinge-like part bends on cue. It is incredibly small -- four by 10,000th of the width of a human hair, it said.
Unlike earlier attempts in `nanotechnology,' the new device is said to be particularly rigid and executes motions ten times bigger than before, the report said.
However, K Eric Drexler of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing in Los Altos, California, said that the device is too cumbersome to be useful now but further development may lead to a practical device.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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