Self-propelling Oil Could Produce Synthetic Life

Tiny drops of an oily mixture can propel themselves in water, without external influences or fuel sources and could one day produce synthetic life in the form of artificial cells that will be able to move independently through living bodies.

A special mixture of oil in the form of tiny globules, placed in water, were shown to be able to slowly creep in one direction, a phenomenon that, according to some scientists could be used to create a type of artificial cells that could carry hereditary information and pass it on to their offspring.

The fact that they would be able to move independently, without any engine out fuel source, will be a great asset, allowing them not only to find nutrients inside the body but also to avoid dangerous situations and even their own waste products.

Researchers at ProtoLife in Venice, Italy and at the University of Tokyo were involved in a joint project aiming to find out what it would need to produce these cells. They came to the conclusion that surface tension, the phenomenon that makes the tiny oil droplets move in one direction, could also be used to power up 1-millimeter-wide droplets of nitrobenzene oil containing oleic anhydride, introduced in alkaline water previously treated with a surfactant.

Unfortunately, for now it is still impossible to make the droplets take a specific direction, but this random movement will hopefully be transformed in a precise one after more intensive studies of this interesting effect, thus leading to practical applications in genetic engineering.

"I certainly got excited when I first saw it," says Steen Rasmussen, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who also works on artificial cells. "I can imagine all kinds of things you could do with that. I'm sure many people like myself are pondering on how this could be utilized."