Star Trek: Voyager celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and the show is still inspiring fans, including some Dutch physicists who have recreated what is certainly the smallest ever model of the USS Voyager.
Voyager gets small… really small
Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands have been working on artificial “microswimmers,” which are objects comparable in size to bacteria and typically 1–10 µm, that can propel themselves through liquids. Most work on microswimmers has been spherical objects, but the Leiden physicists have been using a new Nanoscribe Photonic Professional printer to create more complex objects.
In a paper titled “Catalytically propelled 3D printed colloidal microswimmers” published last month in the journal Soft Matter, the team showed off their latest efforts, which included a tiny Intrepid-class starship.
(Soft Matter)
These microswimmers can propel themselves through liquid using chemical reactions, with their platinum coating reacting to a hydrogen peroxide solution. So this tiny little USS Voyager can actually fly—well… swim, if you want to get technical.
In an email to TrekMovie physicist Jonas Hoecht explains why he chose to create this micro USS Voyager:
Observing catalytically propelled swimmers under the microscope reminded me a bit of watching Star Trek: the swimmers seemed to explore the microscale like starships explore outer space!
So we thought: why not let the microswimmers look even more like starships to make the analogy perfect? Due to our 3d printing approach, we had the flexibility to realize this idea.
Researchers hope that microswimmers can be developed that can perform complex behaviors that can be used in a number of practical applications, including drug treatments. Maybe someday a little starship will be flying around your bloodstream saving your life.
(h/t PC Gamer)
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So great to see Voyager getting respect.
The detail on such tiny objects is astounding.
I love it when the people inspired by Star Trek grow up and do cool things!
This is so amazing! Star Trek is loved in so many places, big and small (yeah pun intended).
There is also a popular 3d bench test for 3d printers… a bench boat
They did a Benchy3D too.
-“Maybe someday a little starship will be flying around your bloodstream saving your life.”
Hummm… Sounds like Asimov’s novel, Fantastic Voyage, and the Proteus submarine flying through the blood stream
Great success!
Proud to be Dutch today!
The phrase ‘let’s go Dutch’ will take on a new meaning, so Steve Martin’s “let’s get small’ has to take a back seat to it.
Now we learn where Species 8472 came from…
resistance will be futile
So this is where Reg Barclay works.
So nice.
Does this mean Voyager is in “fluidic space” ? LOL
So, is there a tiny Raquel Welch in there? Fantastic Voyage-r
Nano probes…great. There’s no way this could go badly…
I wonder if there is a microscopic Janeway with a nanoscopic coffee cup.