Boffins recruit algae for top nanotech jobs

CHEMICAL ENGINEER Gregory Rorrer of the Oregon State University reckons ancient algae could play a useful role in nanotechnological developments of the future, according to the National Geographic.

Diatoms - single-celled marine critters that sit at the bottom of the food chain - have some useful abilities which scientists may harness, when fiddling with tiddly little things, the boffin says.

As well as hanging out in the sea and feeding on carbon dioxide, diatoms also make their little shells out of sea silica.

Rorrer reckons scientists could exploit this little trick an create "ornate microstructures," laced with such substances as silicon, germanium, titanium, and gallium.

Incorporating germanium, for example, into nanoparticles of silica is a tricky business, says Rorrer. But by dissolving the metal into a vat full of diatoms, scientists can grow living, germanium-enhanced algae. The scientists are working out how to get the right amount of germanium into the vat, without poisoning the critters.

There are thousands of species of diatom, which means, says Rorrer, there are of thousands of micro-templates. "Some have holes, some ribs, some oval, some square—and all the microfabrication has been done by the organisms. We just put additional material on it," he says.

Here's the National Geographic article. µ