[Flipside]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14763223

An electrically 'powered' (possible 'stimulated' would be more accurate) motor the size of a molecule has been created. Whilst it still seems to be more a proof of concept than anything else at the moment, it is, nonetheless, fascinating

[Bobboau]

they have been making these things for years, they need to start hooking them up to gears already.

[Flipside]

The difference with this one, according to the article, is the level of control:

"People have found before that they can make motors driven by light or by chemical reactions, but the issue there is that you're driving billions of them at a time - every single motor in your beaker," said Charles Sykes, a chemist at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.

Apparently, hooking them up the molecular 'gears' is exactly what they plan to do next

[headdie]

Awesome stuff, nanites here we come

[Nuke]

they have been making these things for years, they need to start hooking them up to gears already.

i dont think you would need those just yet, you could get locomotion in a fluid, possibly even air, with just a tiny prop.
what is needed is a tiny powersource and a tiny reciever so that we can make tiny remote controlled robots, add tiny sensors and we can automate them. though i would keep the control code running on a server rack instead of having each tiny robot equipped with a tiny computer, that way you have something to smash when things go horribly, horribly wrong.

[Bobboau]

when