Museum of Science and Industry

Finally! It’s about time you started pulling your weight around here, bubbles. Researchers at the University of Hawaii have created microscopic “bubble robots” to manipulate very small objects. By using an infrared laser to heat areas of the fluid surrounding the bubble, researchers were able to steer the “robots” in any direction. By varying the intensity of the laser, they can control the bubbles’ speed as well.

The ability to manipulate objects on such tiny scales could come in handy for lots of things! (Did you ever see Innerspace? That was a good movie.) This technology could also be used in medicine and electronics to create complicated structures on a far smaller scale than ever before.

Microbots Made of Bubbles Have Laser Engines [Discovery News]