In a basement laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, two roboticists have harnessed the sensing, swimming, and swarming abilities of bacteria to power microscopic robots. Even though their work sounds like the prologue to a dark science fiction film, Ph.D. students Elizabeth Beattie and Denise Wong hope these initial experiments with nano bio-robots will provide a platform for future medical and micro-engineering endeavors.
Credits
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network
Footage ands Stills Provided by Elizabeth Beattie, Denise Wong and Edward Steager
Prelinger Archives, Quentin Lindsey, Daniel Mellinger
and Vijay Kumar, University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab
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Meet the Producer
About Luke Groskin
@lgroskinLuke Groskin is Science Friday’s video producer. He’s on a mission to make you love spiders and other odd creatures.