What’s new in nano
Every dated step in the nanotechnology we track, newest first. Each one says what happened, why it matters and how far it is from your life, with its source. New ones arrive every morning.
1 step
Nov 2025
- Microrobots
ETH Zurich researchers reported in Science that they steered drug-carrying microrobots through the blood vessels of pigs and the brain fluid of a sheep; in more than 95% of tests the drug reached the right spot. Their next goal is trials in people.
Working prototype
1 step
Feb 2018
- DNA nanorobots
Researchers at Arizona State University and China's National Center for Nanoscience and Technology reported in Nature Biotechnology that DNA nanorobots shrank tumors in mice with breast, melanoma, ovarian and lung cancers; in the melanoma model, three of eight mice saw their tumors disappear.
Working prototype
1 step
Oct 2016
- Molecular machines
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart and Ben Feringa won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing and making molecular machines. The committee said the molecular motor was at the stage the electric motor reached in the 1830s.
Lab discovery
1 step
March 2006
- DNA origami
Paul Rothemund of Caltech published his method for folding DNA into shapes and patterns a few nanometers in size, in Nature.
Lab discovery