Molecular motors in the single nanometer scale have not yet been observed to generate propulsion. We utilize single molecule imaging of fluorescent submersible nano-machines in order to asses whether sufficient amount of work could be exerted by the motor to propel the nano-machine and overcome the dominant viscosity forces in this extremely low Reynolds number regime.
By imaging the nano-machines with and without motor activation and calculating their diffusion in the channels, we wish to characterize the difference in diffusion between activated motor and non-activated and thus estimate the work done by the motor and confirm its effectiveness.