Forget nanobots. Who needs ‘em? Since apparently we can now directly control live bacteria and make them do our bidding. I’m in awe. The feat was accomplished – and extensively documented in the video above – by researchers at the NanoRobotics Laboratory of the École Polytechnique de Montréal. The bacteria in question are known as magnetotactic bacteria, which have internal compasses that respond to the pull of a magnetic field. The research team used just such a magnetic field to bunch the bacteria together en masse and manipulate their movements to accomplish simple tasks.
