Tiny machines
Chemists can build molecules that spin, walk and switch on command, and fold DNA into boxes and hinges. Engineers are steering microscopic robots through animals. None of this is the nanobot of science fiction yet; here is how far it has really got.
4 technologies tracked here, by how far each has got.
From lab to your life
Where each one stands
Every technology sits on the step its dated, sourced milestones support, never where its makers hope it will be. Open one to see why it's there.
- 5Everyday lifeIt is probably already in your life.
- Nothing we track here is at this step yet.
- 4Approved or on saleYou can get it now, though it may not be common yet.
- Nothing we track here is at this step yet.
- 3Real-world testingCould reach you in a few years if the tests go well.
- Nothing we track here is at this step yet.
- 2Working prototypeStill years away; many prototypes stall here.
- DNA nanorobots for cancerDrug-delivering robotA sheet of DNA origami rolled into a tube carries a blood-clotting enzyme.Researchers at Arizona State University and China's National Center for Nanoscience and Technology reported in Nature Biotechnology that…
- Magnetic microrobots for drug deliveryDrug-delivering robotA tiny gel capsule loaded with medicine and iron oxide nanoparticles is steered through blood vessels with magnets.ETH Zurich researchers reported in Science that they steered drug-carrying microrobots through the blood vessels of pigs and the brain…
- 1Lab discoveryUsually 10 years or more from products, and most never get there.
- DNA origamiBuilding with DNADNA origami folds a long strand of DNA into chosen shapes and patterns a few nanometers in size, held in place by short DNA strands, like a pegboard on which other molecules can be placed exactly.Paul Rothemund of Caltech published his method for folding DNA into shapes and patterns a few nanometers in size, in Nature.
- Molecular machines and motorsMolecules that moveChemists can build single molecules with parts that move relative to each other when energy is added: rings that slide along rods, and motors that spin in one direction.Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart and Ben Feringa won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing and making molecular machines. The…
On the record
The latest steps
The most recent dated events for everything in this topic, newest first, each with its source.
- Animal study
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.
ETH Zurich via EurekAlert, 13 Nov 2025 - Animal study
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.
Arizona State University, 12 Feb 2018 - On the record
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.
Nobel Prize press release, 5 Oct 2016 - Published research
DNA origami
Paul Rothemund of Caltech published his method for folding DNA into shapes and patterns a few nanometers in size, in Nature.
Caltech, 10 Mar 2016
From the same team: Robotics Progress, for robots at the scale you can see.