Transcript:

Part machine, part living organism -- It might sound like science fiction, but researchers are currently developing tiny organic molecular motors -- small enough to operate in the bloodstream of the human body. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

"For me, the most intellectually compelling feature of this work is that it allows us to integrate engineered devices with living systems at the most fundamental level, the level that energy flows within life."

Carlo Montemagno, a professor at Cornell University, says that the naturally occurring part of this new hybrid technology is a molecule that exists in virtually all living things. Part of the molecule twists and turns when it undergoes a chemical reaction.

"The force that this molecule generates when it spins is consistent with the forces needed to move objects that we can fabricate."

The results would be a molecular-sized motor-powered device that can deliver drugs inside the body, or potentially generate electrical impulses that could help treat victims of paralysis. Professor Montemagno says this technology is very similar to the Borgs, as seen on the Star Trek television series.

"Many of the features of the Star Trek Borg are very similar to the kind of features that this technology enables. It allows us to make an engineered device, which gets powered and controlled by the normal life processes of the organism, and then the engineered device is hopefully allowed to accentuate and improve the life of the host organism. So, it becomes a symbiotic relationship in which your engineered device, instead of being an attachment, becomes part of the life. So it's hybrid, it's living and non-living."

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.