Source: CNRS (Délégation Paris Michel-Ange)A car race of scientific importance will be held on April 28-29, 2017, in Toulouse, France. The 36-hour maximum duration Nanocar Race event will proceed on a racecourse with dimensions of 20 nanometers with one 45-degree turn, followed by 30 nanometers with another 45-degree turn, followed by 20 nanometers, for a total of 100 nanometers.

The vehicles, consisting of a few hundred atoms, will be powered by minute electrical pulses, along a racecourse made of gold atoms. Race observations will be made beneath the four tips of a unique microscope located at a facility operated by the French National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS). The agency organized the race, which will be broadcast live on the YouTube Nanocar Race channel. Beyond the competition, the overarching objective is to advance research in the observation and control of molecule-machines.

In the future, molecular machinery — activated individually or in synchronized fashion — might be used in the manufacture of common machines: atom-by-atom construction of electronic circuits, or atom-by-atom deconstruction of industrial waste. The Nanocar Race is therefore a unique opportunity for researchers to implement cutting-edge techniques for the simultaneous observation and independent maneuvering of such nano-machines.

CNRS' microscope is the only one in the world allowing four different experimenters to work on the same surface. The development of such multi-tip microscopes will enable synchronizing a great number of molecule-machines in order to increase capacity, for instance for storing energy or capturing it from a hot metallic surface.