Tiny Paddle Built to Ply Your Body

A newly designed paddle the size of a red blood cell is able to detect as few as six virus particles and, according to researchers, could lead to a means for scientists to spot a variety of unwanted bugs and poisons.

In much the same way the energy from your finger causes a guitar string to vibrate when it is plucked, scientist at Cornell University use a crystal to "pluck" microscopic silicon paddles.

Like nanoscale diving boards, with a square platform at the end of an arm, the tiny paddles vibrate at a different rate when molecules stick to them, because of an increase in the total mass of the detector.

Nanoscale objects are built of individual atoms and molecules.

The smaller the paddle the more sensitive it will be to changes in its mass and researchers believe that eventually they will create paddles that can detect a single virus or a molecule of DNA.

-- LiveScience Staff

Credit: Craighead Group, © Cornell University