I’ve been hearing this concept tossed around for years now, but apparently, it has now happened: Science (and may I point out that I capitalize ‘Science’ intentionally) has built robots out of DNA, and has put them to work.

Nadrian Seeman, a professor at NYU and his team have developed a sort of ‘factory’ where they’re currently experimenting with having the nanobots build particles of gold. Each robot is composed of a few molecules, instructed by DNA.

“We have the three robot stations lined up in a row, and the walker walks by them. Depending on how we program the system, the walker will or will not accept cargos from the three stations,” said Seeman of his labor force.

And Seeman isn’t even the only one – Milan Stojanovic of Colombia University is also experimenting with the same technology, developing a chemical delivery system that allows Men of Science to effectively steer the robot. Y’know, to make more gold, and stuff.

And here I thought our future robot overlords would be, like, made of metal or something. What a fool I was.

Oh, and yeah, sorry I don’t have a photograph. Seriously, guys, they’re really tiny robots.

[Via Crave]