Behold: molecules that can walk and deliver payloads in a straight line. This could lead to some interesting breakthroughs.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here are some interesting pictures of semi-conductor junctions and charge carriers, at the nano-scale:

"There's no major surprises here," says Andreas Heinrich of IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. "But the fact that they are actually imaging the electric properties is a big step forward." Surprises may show up when de-vices shrink below around 50 nanometers, Heinrich says, because dopant atoms will be so scarce that their individual positions may affect the de-vice's function. Tomihiro Hashizume of Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory in Hatoyama, Japan, says the ability to see precisely how charge carriers move "will be indispensable for the further progress of de-vice miniaturization."

[Update a little after 11 Eastern]

A surgical microbot.

The scientists are designing the 250-micron de-vice to transmit images and deliver microscopic payloads to parts of the body outside the reach of existing catheter technology.

It will also perform minimally invasive microsurgeries, said James Friend of the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory at Australia's Monash University, who leads the team. The researchers hope the de-vice will reduce the risks normally associated with delicate surgical procedures.

The piezoelectric approach seems promising.

How much further behind will be nanobots?

Cool stuff.

Okay, here's an idea. We put $1000 in a safe investment, getting 3% above inflation. Due to nanotechnology, we don't die. 500 years later, our $1000 dollars has grown to 2.6 billion, in today's dollars. Now we fund our own development of an orbital launch vehicle that we can reuse and fly several dozen times a week. If 2.6 billion won't do it, we wait until we hit 1000 years, and we have more than 6.87 quadrillion dolars.

Now, if only we can find a safe 1000 year investment getting 3% above inflation, and get proper life extension. Real estate maybe? The moon? T Bills?