Are we living up to 2014?

2014 – it’s well and truly underway. It is the here and now – the present. But don’t you think it seems a bit, well, overly futuristic? You know…as a number. Just look at it…2014…it just seems entirely out of place on today’s calendar page. It is just screaming out to be rendered in some impossibly advanced material – shimmering as reflected light from a utopian skyline dances over its sleek form. …A little too far? Yeah, you are probably right. It’s just a number after all. But it just seems to us that the world in 2014 should have flying cars and tight star-trek style outfits for all. Yet here we sit on the science lite desk, not a single one of us be-hugged by lycra. Yes we have sat nav, and yes we have 3-D printers but we also have a rail network with the robustness of a marshmallow and postage stamps – and so we have to ask, have we as a species really lived up to the inherently futuristic ambition of 2014? Don’t get us wrong, we recognise the incredible work that scientists of all disciplines are doing, and the enormous strides they have made but we are talking about something different here. Something that can be best summed up thusly: “Would this impress a 9 year old?” For they are difficult people to impress, that’s for sure. Yet there is hope for the inner children of the science lite desk – a key that will snap 9 year olds across the land out of their X-box induced pseudo-trance and inspire some good old fashioned learning. “Rocket-shaped nanoninjas squelch evil cells to death!” That’s all you need to say, and we are confident that within but a moment you’ll have their undivided attention. But we must have just made that up, surely? Try telling that to Professor Tom Mallouk, from Penn State University. He says his group has taken a big step towards his final goal of creating molecular machines that will basically act as our own personal medical team.  "One dream application of ours is Fantastic Voyage-style medicine, where nanomotors would cruise around inside the body, communicating with each other and performing various kinds of diagnoses and therapy,” explains Tom. He and his team have managed not only to fabricate rocket shaped nanomotors, but also – and this is of course the crucial part – to insert them into live cells. Once in the cells they are on their best behaviour – you’ll hear not a peep out of these little nanomotors as they smile innocently at the mitochondria, and offer up their seats to the ribosomes. Indeed they are the ideal cellular house guests. But ideal cellular guests make for pretty useless medical tools – for the business of nanomedicine is often a brutal one. This is where Professor Mallouk’s next breakthrough comes in. To activate his swarm of nanomedics he simply applies some sound. Ultrasound to be precise. And boy, do they dance to his tune when he does. Leaping into action the gold-ruthenium nanomotors propel themselves around the cell and really start to shake things up. Within a short time the cell’s interior begins to look like a house in which a ‘Facebook party’ has got completely out of hand. Basically the cell is homogenised – just what you want if that cell happens to be cancerous. And so Professor Mallouk we congratulate you sir for giving 9 year olds a perfect reason to look up from their mobile devices, put down their console controllers and marvel at the real world. A world where, despite the lack of any jet packs, we can honestly say that rocket-shaped nanoninjas can squelch evil cells to death. And what could be more futuristic than that?