New teeny tiny motors can fit inside the strand of a piece of hair

By Dean Murray

A mind-bogglingly small new motor can fit inside a strand of hair.

Its cell-sized gears are powered by light and could be used as pumps inside the human body.

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg say making the gears on a micrometer scale paves the way for the smallest on-chip motors in history.

A University of Gothenburg statement said: "Gears are everywhere – from clocks and cars to robots and wind turbines. For more than 30 years, researchers have been trying to create even smaller gears in order to construct micro-engines. But progress stalled at 0.1 millimeters, as it was not possible to build the drive trains needed to make them move any smaller."

The researchers have broken through this barrier by ditching traditional mechanical drive trains and instea