Microrobots and nanomachines are no longer far-off dreams. However,one of the biggest challenges that remains is to transmit the motion of individual molecules or molecular clusters into structured macroscopic motion that continues as long as the system is supplied with energy. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Japanese scientists believe now introduced such an autonomously oscillating system: A plate-like crystal that continuously alternates between bending and stretching as long as it is irradiated with blue light in water.
Source: phys.org