Tiny Molecular Electric Motor Spins Like Ancient Screw
Scientists have built an ultra-tiny molecular electric motor inspired by Archimedes' screw that conducts electricity 100 times better when spinning.
Imagine an engine so tiny that its moving part is made from just one single spiral molecule! On 1 November 2026, an international team of scientists from Germany, Denmark, and Israel announced they have built a working molecular electric motor. This microscopic marvel is based on a clever machine created more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Greece, known as the Archimedes screw.
Long ago, ancient farmers used giant hollow screws to lift water uphill from rivers to their fields. Now, researchers have shrunk that ancient design down to the nanoworld. Instead of lifting water, this tiny motor channels a flowing stream of electrons to make a spiral molecule spin like a miniature wind turbine.
What happened?
To build this machine, chemists led by Michael Pittelkow at the University of Copenhagen synthesized a spiral organic molecule named helicene. This spiral molecule measures just a few millionths of a millimetre in length. Next, experimental researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, including Oren Tal and Anil Kumar Singh, attached the molecule firmly between two ultra-fine gold electrodes using sulfur atoms.
This device is the very first current-driven molecular machine attached between metal electrodes that can switch its spinning direction simply by reversing the polarity of the voltage. At first, the molecule only makes small, jittering movements. However, once the electric voltage passes a certain threshold, the molecule suddenly begins a smooth and continuous rotation.
To understand how the motor moves, theoretical physicists Prof. Dr. Fabian Pauly, Léon Martin, and Yuta Ito at the University of Augsburg analyzed it using quantum mechanical simulations on a supercomputer named LiCCA. They discovered that when the molecule spins, its electrical conductivity surges by up to two orders of magnitude—conducting electricity 100 times better than when standing still! Researcher Léon Martin explained that spinning allows the molecule to reach special physical orientations that it naturally avoids while resting, opening a super-pathway for electrons. By shifting the gold electrodes by less than a tenth of a nanometer, the researchers could stretch or compress the molecule to fine-tune the exact current needed.
Why does it matter to you?
You might wonder how a motor smaller than a speck of dust could change your everyday life in India. In the future, the gadgets we use every day, like smartphones, school tablets, and computers, will need to become faster and smaller without draining their batteries quickly.
The research, published in the journal Nature, opens exciting new paths to design microscopic molecular switches, tiny sensors, and nanoscale electronic devices. This breakthrough proves that ideas from thousands of years ago can still spark modern technological revolutions, inspiring young Indian scientists to find clever solutions by looking at history!
Words to know
- Molecule: A tiny cluster of atoms bonded together that forms a specific chemical substance.
- Electrode: A tiny electrical conductor that carries an electric current into or out of an object.
- Nanoscale: A microscopic size so tiny that it is measured in millionths of a millimetre.
- Polarity: The direction of electrical flow between positive and negative poles.
- Conductivity: The ability of a material to allow electricity to travel through it easily.
Did you know?
The Archimedes screw was designed more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Greece, and modern engineers still use the exact same spiral design today to pump wastewater and lift grain!
Think about it
If you could build a microscopic robot powered by this tiny molecular motor, what important job would you send it to do inside a computer or a machine? Can you think of any other ancient tools that could inspire futuristic technology?
Quick quiz
How much better does the spiral molecule conduct electricity when it is spinning compared to when standing still?
- 10 times better
- 50 times better
- 100 times better
See the answer
100 times better
Sources
This story was prepared by the Kids Gazette news desk with the help of AI research and writing tools, using the sources listed above.
