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In science fiction, "contraction rays" are the simplest way to turn a bulky object into something much smaller, but in reality, things are not so simple. Creating object versions on the "nanoscale" scale is a difficult task that MIT researchers were trying to simplify a bit. The result is a new system that allows scientists to efficiently reduce three-dimensional structures to one-thousandth of their original size.
In creating this new system, Edward Boyden, a professor at MIT, started with a technique actually used to make things bigger. This is what is called expansion microscopy and used to increase the size of cells and tissues by incorporating biological material into a polymer gel that makes it fat.
To develop a system for reducing 3D objects, researchers used a similar technique in reverse. First of all, a polymer scaffold is created, used as a 3D canvas to attach other particles. These particles – which can be anything from metal to biological molecules – are arranged in the desired form and fixed with light-sensitive anchors.
"You tie the anchors where you want them with light and then you can attach whatever you want to the anchors," says Boyden. "It could be a quantum dot, a piece of DNA, a nanoparticle of gold."
Once the desired shape has been constructed, the structure is exposed to an acid that forces the polymer to contract, shrinking the object up to 1000 times.
The technique is highly adaptable and could be useful in many different applications. For now, researchers suggest that it could be used in the production of camera lenses as well as components for microscopes or endoscopes. Further, the team says that it could even help build robots at the nanoscale. Maybe a "gray" apocalypse is in the cards for humankind after all?
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