Nanobots May Take On Brown TideNanobots May Take On Brown Tide

When you're battling deadly algae, sometimes you have to get down and fight it at its own microscopic level. Scientists at the University of Southern California are in the early stages of a project to create molecular robots to detect harmful algae that create brown tides in coastal waters.

The researchers, funded by $1.5 million from a National Science Foundation grant, initially will develop a scanning probe microscope with a nanometer-scale tip (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter) to detect and create images of single-cell algae in tanks of seawater in a lab. The new approach will be faster than the current DNA sequencing method of identifying algae, says Ari Requicha, director of USC's Laboratory for Molecular Robotics in Los Angeles.

"The ultimate goal is to find out why certain single-cell algae grow," he says. Algae blooms, including brown tides that occasionally occur along the mid-Atlantic coast and elsewhere, can be toxic to marine life and even people. "No one really understands what precipitates its growth," Requicha says, speculating that the answer might lie in the microstructure of the ocean environment.

The scientists hope to use the scanning probe microscope in the ocean to detect the offending algae. Beyond that, they could apply the knowledge they gain to building robots 1 to 2 microns in length--the size of most single-cell algae--using nano-scale components. Such nanobots would float freely in the ocean to detect dangerous algae and broadcast a stream of data about their findings. However, Requicha says it will be at least 10 years before that becomes technologically feasible.