‘Micro-scallop’ takes a stroke toward swimming in blood

micro-scallop

Designed like a scallop, this tiny device can flap its way through fluids that have inconsistent viscosity, something that has been a challenge in the past. 

Alejandro Posada/MPI-IS

Making tiny machines that can move through blood and other fluids that have inconsistent consistencies, or viscosities, is tough. Now scientists say that their “micro-scallop” is up to the task. The device has two shells attached at a single hinge. Magnets control how quickly the shells flap open and shut. Depending on those speeds, the viscocity of the fluid between the shells can change, propelling the 300-micrometer-wide scallop forward. The design could pave the way for similar swimmers to travel through blood and tissue and deliver therapeutic drugs to targeted areas, researchers report November 4 in Nature Communications

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. She has worked at The Scientist, the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, and was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.