NanoComputer

Nature manufactures numerous machines known as “molecular”. Highly complex assemblies of proteins, they are involved in essential functions of living beings such as the transport of ions, the synthesis of ATP (the “energy molecule”), and cell division. Our muscles are thus controlled by the coordinated movement of these thousands of protein nano-machines, which only function individually over distances of the order of a nanometer. However, when combined in their thousands, such nano-machines amplify this telescopic movement until they reach our scale and do so in a perfectly coordinated manner.
For the first time, an assembly of thousands of nano-machines capable of producing a coordinated contraction movement extending up to around ten micrometers – thereby amplifying the movement by a factor of 10,000, like the movements of muscular fibers, has been synthesized by a CNRS team from the Institut Charles Sadron – France.

This discovery opens up perspectives for a multitude of applications in robotics, in nanotechnology for the storage of information, in the medical field for the synthesis of artificial muscles or in the design of other materials incorporating nano-machines (endowed with novel mechanical properties).
Source: http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2117.htm

Imitating the antennas of the silkmoth to design a system for detecting explosives with unparalleled performance. Made up of a silicon microcantilever bearing nearly 500,000 aligned titanium dioxide nanotubes, this device is capable of detecting concentrations of trinitrotoluene (TNT) of around 800 ppq (1) (i.e. 800 molecules of explosive per 10^15 molecules of air), thereby improving one thousand-fold the detection limit attainable until now. This innovative concept could also be used to detect drugs, toxic agents and traces of organic pollutants. This work was published on May 29 2012 in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Research and development work is still necessary before an easy-to-use device based on these  nanostructured levers can be obtained. Let's remind that earlier this year a team from Nederlands used the Cricket to build nanostructured  ultra sensitive antennas.
See http://www.nanocomputer.com/?p=1337
Research is led  by a team from the "Nanomatériaux pour Systèmes sous Sollicitations Extrêmes" unit (CNRS / Institut Franco-Allemand de Recherches de Saint-Louis), in collaboration with the Laboratoire des Matériaux, Surfaces et Procédés pour la Catalyse (CNRS / Université de Strasbourg), FRANCE.

Source: http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2049.htm

The development of a new combination of polymers associating sugars with oil-based  macromolecules makes it possible to design ultra-thin films capable of self-organization with a 5-nanometer resolution. This opens up new horizons for increasing the capacity of hard discs and the speed of microprocessors. The result of a French-American collaboration spearheaded by the Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules Végétales (CNRS- Paris, France),  this work has led to the filing of two patents. This new class of thin films based on hybrid copolymers could give rise to numerous applications in flexible eclectronics, in areas as diverse as nanolithography, biosensors and photovoltaic cells.

This new generation of material is made from an abundant, renewable and biodegradable resource: sugar. Scientists envisage numerous applications in flexible electronics:  miniaturization of circuit lithography, six-fold increase in information storage capacity (flash memories – USB keys – no longer limited to 1 Tbit of data but 6 Tbit), enhanced performance of photovoltaic cells, biosensors,

Source: http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2033.htm