When Mark Rober set out to make the world's smallest Nerf gun he didn't know it would lead to this. I talked with Mark to learn about how this saga could lead to medical breakthroughs.

How his friendly rivalry with Mr Beast pushes both of them to greater extremes and what inspired him to make a Nerf gun out of DNA. What inspires me to do any of the dumb stuff I do on my YouTube channel, I don't know Mark. Also holds the record for the world's largest Nerf gun which he built himself but going smaller and to such an extreme degree presented new challenges.

Mark with the help of some experts first set out to simplify the Nerf gun and try to get the whole thing in just one part. All materials are Springs you know even glass technically is a spring but it's it's just so stiff you can hardly see how much it's you know bending you just take advantage of that springiness you can build the hinges and the Springs into one part so that's kind of how we accomplished it.

The this one-part design broke the record a few times but still reached its limits. We got to the size of three orders of magnitude smaller so a thousand times smaller than a Nerf gun and it was still Fireball so it's like it's perfect scale if you're an aunt and you have a bunch of buddies and you going to have a Nerf fight like I got you.

I couldn't even use tweezers cuz my hands way too rough. We had to use a micromanipulator and like barely turn a screw and then it barely pulls this thing back to it back and fire it and then beyond that like it could be done with very very very expensive instruments but for the sakes of this video it's just like way out of scope.

Then we started just making the shapes of them which I would argue is still it's it's a Nerf gun it's just a non-functional one. It looks like you know the outline Mark kept going smaller in part because of his friendly rivalry with Mr Beast. We're friends you know, I've done a few World Records in fact whenever he breaks one of mine usually I'll fly out and help him break it but in this case once I learned about the DNA it's like oh there's actually there's still some room here so I need to protect this one against Mr Beast before finishing his video.

Mark learned about a technique called DNA origami being studied at the Suk Institute and decided to make one last record-shattering batch of Nano Nerf guns. Cuz in nature, they automatically you know DNA binds up. You create these staple strands that will like like bind to the one half of the DNA and lock it into whatever shape you want.

And then all you do is you take a bunch of those staple strands you can order online that have a very specific sequence of DNA and then a bass strand that has a very specific sequence of DNA. You throw that into a test tube at just the right temperature for just the right amount of time, and it literally self-assembled to even check their work required very special tools.

It's 100 nanom in length now. The wavelength of light on average 400 to 700 nanom light can't even bounce off it to come back to your eye. We had to Ed an atomic Force microscope which is basically a lever arm that goes out and it just feels its way back and forth across the surface, and then when encounters something as small as a single atom, it moves up a little bit, and then when it passes by that atom, it moves down.

And then you're shining a laser off that lever so you can like accentuate the movements up and down. Sure enough, when we did it, we saw in like a single drop of saline solution there was like 1.2 trillion of the world's smallest Nerf guns. There are now more of the world's smallest Nerf guns than there ever have or ever will be actual Nerf guns in a single drop.

The technology behind Mark's final and smallest Nerf guns might hold the key to some medical breakthroughs when you think of like oh robots in your bloodstream that can help in the future. It's looking like machines made of metal and clicking parts and gears and batteries right but it's not that with a very targeted approach if you had 1.2 trillion mini Nerf guns that instead of firing darts were firing something like the right sequence of whatever to kill a bad cell or to fortify a good cell hijacking what we would call Natural biological machines.

Our body's already making them but kind of tweaking them and rewriting them in a way that's even more beneficial for ourselves. Check out Mark's fantastic in-depth video for much more from the team of leading experts he assembled to make these many Nerf guns a reality. As always, thanks so much for watching, I'm your host Jess oral see you next time with the fam.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's smaller than that actual wavelength of light light can't even bounce off it to come back to your eye when Mark Rober set out to make the world's smallest nerf gun he didn't know it would lead to this I talked with Mark to learn about how this Saga could lead to Medical breakthroughs how his friendly rivalry with Mr Beast pushes both of them to Greater extremes and what inspired him to make a nerf gun out of DNA what inspires me to do any of the dumb stuff I do on my YouTube channel I don't know Mark also holds the record for the world's largest Nerf gun which he built himself but going smaller and to such an extreme degree presented new challenges so Mark with the help of some experts first set out to simplify the Nerf gun and try to get the whole thing in just one part all materials are Springs you know even glass technically is a spring but it's it's just so stiff you can hardly see how much it's you know bending you just take advantage of that springiness you can build the hinges and the Springs into one part so that's kind of how we accomplished it the this one part design broke the record a few times but still reached its limits we got to the size of three orders of magnitude smaller so a thousand times smaller than a Nerf gun and it was still Fireball so it's like it's perfect scale if you're an aunt and you have a bunch of buddies and you going to have a Nerf fight like I got you and I couldn't even use tweezers cuz my hands way too rough we had to use a micromanipulator and like barely turn a screw and then it barely pulls this thing back to it back and fire it and then beyond that like it could be done with very very very expensive instruments but for the sakes of this video it's just like way out of scope then we started just making the shapes of them which I would argue is still it's it's a Nerf gun it's just a non-functional one it looks like it you know the outline Mark kept going smaller in part because of his friendly rivalry with Mr Beast we're friends you know I've done a few World Records in fact whenever he breaks one of mine usually I'll fly out and help him break it but in this case once I learned about the DNA it's like oh there's actually there's still some room here so I need to protect this one against Mr Beast before finishing his video Mark learned about a technique called DNA origami being studied at the Suk Institute and decided to make one last record shattering batch of Nano Nerf guns cuz in nature they automatically you know DNA binds up you create these staple strands that will like like bind to the one half of the DNA and lock it into whatever shape you want and then all you do is you take a bunch of those staple strands you can order online that have a very specific sequence of DNA and then a bass strand that has a very specific sequence of DNA you throw that into a test tube at just the right temperature for just the right amount of time and it literally self assembled to even check their work required very special tools it's 100 nanom in length now the wavelength of light on average 400 to 700 nanom light can't even bounce off it to come back to your eye we had to Ed an atomic Force microscope which is basically a lever arm that goes out and it just feels its way back and forth across the surface and then when encounters something as small as a single atom it moves up a little bit and then when it passes by that atom it moves down and then you're shining a laser off that lever so you can like accentuate the movements up and down sure enough when we did it we saw in like a single drop of saline solution there was like 1.2 trillion of the world's smallest nerf guns there are now more of the world's smallest nerf guns than there ever have or ever will be actual Nerf guns in a single drop the technology behind Mark's final and smallest nerf guns might hold the key to some medical breakthroughs when you think of like oh robots in your bloodstream that can help in the future it's looking like machines made of metal and clicking parts and gears and batteries right but it's not that with a very targeted approach if you had 1.2 trillion mini Nerf guns that instead of firing darts were firing something like the right sequence of whatever to kill a bad cell cancer or to fortify a good cell hijacking what we would call Natural biological machines our body's already making but kind of tweaking them and rewriting them in a way that's even more beneficial for ourselves check out Mark's fantastic in-depth video for much more from the team of leading experts he assembled to make these many Nerf guns a reality as always thanks so much for watching I'm your host Jess oral see you next time with the famit's smaller than that actual wavelength of light light can't even bounce off it to come back to your eye when Mark Rober set out to make the world's smallest nerf gun he didn't know it would lead to this I talked with Mark to learn about how this Saga could lead to Medical breakthroughs how his friendly rivalry with Mr Beast pushes both of them to Greater extremes and what inspired him to make a nerf gun out of DNA what inspires me to do any of the dumb stuff I do on my YouTube channel I don't know Mark also holds the record for the world's largest Nerf gun which he built himself but going smaller and to such an extreme degree presented new challenges so Mark with the help of some experts first set out to simplify the Nerf gun and try to get the whole thing in just one part all materials are Springs you know even glass technically is a spring but it's it's just so stiff you can hardly see how much it's you know bending you just take advantage of that springiness you can build the hinges and the Springs into one part so that's kind of how we accomplished it the this one part design broke the record a few times but still reached its limits we got to the size of three orders of magnitude smaller so a thousand times smaller than a Nerf gun and it was still Fireball so it's like it's perfect scale if you're an aunt and you have a bunch of buddies and you going to have a Nerf fight like I got you and I couldn't even use tweezers cuz my hands way too rough we had to use a micromanipulator and like barely turn a screw and then it barely pulls this thing back to it back and fire it and then beyond that like it could be done with very very very expensive instruments but for the sakes of this video it's just like way out of scope then we started just making the shapes of them which I would argue is still it's it's a Nerf gun it's just a non-functional one it looks like it you know the outline Mark kept going smaller in part because of his friendly rivalry with Mr Beast we're friends you know I've done a few World Records in fact whenever he breaks one of mine usually I'll fly out and help him break it but in this case once I learned about the DNA it's like oh there's actually there's still some room here so I need to protect this one against Mr Beast before finishing his video Mark learned about a technique called DNA origami being studied at the Suk Institute and decided to make one last record shattering batch of Nano Nerf guns cuz in nature they automatically you know DNA binds up you create these staple strands that will like like bind to the one half of the DNA and lock it into whatever shape you want and then all you do is you take a bunch of those staple strands you can order online that have a very specific sequence of DNA and then a bass strand that has a very specific sequence of DNA you throw that into a test tube at just the right temperature for just the right amount of time and it literally self assembled to even check their work required very special tools it's 100 nanom in length now the wavelength of light on average 400 to 700 nanom light can't even bounce off it to come back to your eye we had to Ed an atomic Force microscope which is basically a lever arm that goes out and it just feels its way back and forth across the surface and then when encounters something as small as a single atom it moves up a little bit and then when it passes by that atom it moves down and then you're shining a laser off that lever so you can like accentuate the movements up and down sure enough when we did it we saw in like a single drop of saline solution there was like 1.2 trillion of the world's smallest nerf guns there are now more of the world's smallest nerf guns than there ever have or ever will be actual Nerf guns in a single drop the technology behind Mark's final and smallest nerf guns might hold the key to some medical breakthroughs when you think of like oh robots in your bloodstream that can help in the future it's looking like machines made of metal and clicking parts and gears and batteries right but it's not that with a very targeted approach if you had 1.2 trillion mini Nerf guns that instead of firing darts were firing something like the right sequence of whatever to kill a bad cell cancer or to fortify a good cell hijacking what we would call Natural biological machines our body's already making but kind of tweaking them and rewriting them in a way that's even more beneficial for ourselves check out Mark's fantastic in-depth video for much more from the team of leading experts he assembled to make these many Nerf guns a reality as always thanks so much for watching I'm your host Jess oral see you next time with the fam\n"