Archimedes' screw, shrunk to a single molecule — and it runs on electricity

More than two thousand years ago, Archimedes designed a screw that lifts water. At the University of Augsburg in Germany, scientists have shrunk the idea to a single spiral molecule, wired between two metal electrodes. Pass a current through it and the molecule rotates like its ancient namesake; flip the voltage and it spins the other way. Stranger still, spinning made the molecule conduct electricity about 100 times better — motion and current feeding each other at the smallest scale engineers can reach. Molecular machines are a long way from products, but every motor in history started as a curiosity that turned.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation