Technologies

How Mark Rober’s DNA Nerf Guns Could Lead to Medical Breakthroughs

Mark Rober explains his yearlong odyssey to break the record for world’s smallest Nerf gun five times, culminating in ones made out of DNA.

When Mark Rober set out to break the record for world’s smallest Nerf gun, he never expected he’d end up making more mini Nerf guns than the total number of actual Nerf guns ever to exist.

In his yearlong mission, Rober ended up breaking the record five times by collaborating with leading experts and employing different engineering techniques.

His first few batches of mini Nerf blasters were made possible by drastically simplifying the design of the Nerf gun. «All materials are springs, even glass,» Rober told CNET in an interview. «You just take advantage of that springiness [to] build all the hinges and the springs into one part.»

This one-part design broke the record a few times but eventually reached its limits. At 1,000 times smaller than a standard Nerf gun, about the perfect size for an ant, the mini Nerf guns were still able to fire. They had to be fired with a micro-manipulator, however, since human hands and tweezers would not be precise enough to do the job.

Beyond that, Rober says a fireable Nerf gun «could be done,» but that the tools required were so expensive as to put it beyond the scope of his video.

Despite no longer being fireable, Rober kept going smaller, in part to protect this particular record from his friend and rival in world-record breaking shenanigans, YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast.

Before wrapping up his video, Rober learned of a technique called DNA origami being studied at the Salk Institute and decided to make one last batch of nano Nerf guns.

This technique takes advantage of the fact that DNA naturally binds up when complementary strands are placed in solution together to build out specific shapes. In this case, the right DNA strands placed in the right temperature solution for the right length of time produced trillions of nano Nerf guns.

At 100 nanometers in length, they’re smaller than the wavelength of visible light, so «light can’t even bounce off them to get back to your eye.» Rober explained that in order to view their creations, they needed the help of an atomic force microscope.

The technology behind these record-shattering mini Nerf guns could also be applied to medical breakthroughs. Rober explains that DNA origami techniques might be used someday to hack the human body’s biological mechanisms. For example, he says, «if you had 1.2 trillion mini Nerf guns that instead of firing darts were firing something … to kill a bad cell, cancer or fortify a good cell.»

To see our full interview with Rober about his record-breaking nano Nerf guns, check out the video in this article.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, July 3

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 3.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword stumped me in a few spots. 8-Across had me thinking of a couple different words, but I landed on it eventually. Need answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Glaswegian or Edinburgher
Answer: SCOT

5A clue: 2025 Pixar film about a boy who gets abducted by aliens
Answer: ELIO

6A clue: Strong string
Answer: TWINE

7A clue: Religious devotee with a shaved head, maybe
Answer: MONK

8A clue: Calligrapher’s assortment
Answer: INKS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Attach, as a button
Answer: SEWON

2D clue: Sound of two glasses being «cheers-ed»
Answer: CLINK

3D clue: Noises from a pig
Answer: OINKS

4D clue: «Little piggy»
Answer: TOE

6D clue: «Did I overshare?»
Answer: TMI

Technologies

Starlink Plans to Send 42K Satellites Into Space. That Could Be Bad News for the Ozone

Technologies

Scary Survey Results: Teen Drivers Are Often Looking at Their Phones

New troubling research found that entertainment is the most common reason teens use their phones behind the wheel, followed by texting and navigation.

A new study reveals that teen drivers in the US are spending more than one-fifth of their driving time distracted by their phones, with many glances lasting long enough to significantly raise the risk of a crash. Published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention and released on Thursday, the research found that, on average, teens reported looking at their phones during 21.1% of every driving trip. More than a quarter of those distractions lasted two seconds or longer, which is an amount of time widely recognized as dangerous at highway speeds.

Most distractions tied to entertainment, not emergencies

The top reason teens said they reached for their phones behind the wheel was for entertainment, cited by 65% of respondents. Texting (40%) and navigation (30%) were also common. Researchers emphasized that these distractions weren’t typically urgent, but rather habitual or social.

Teens know the risks

The study includes survey responses from 1,126 teen drivers across all four US regions, along with in-depth interviews with a smaller group of high schoolers. Most participants recognized that distracted driving is unsafe and believed their parents and peers disapproved of the behavior.

But many teens also assumed that their friends were doing it anyway, pointing to a disconnect between personal values and perceived social norms.

Teens think they can resist distractions

Interestingly, most teens expressed confidence in their ability to resist distractions. That belief, researchers suggest, could make it harder to change behavior unless future safety campaigns specifically target these attitudes.

The study’s lead author, Dr. Rebecca Robbins of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said interventions should aim to shift social norms while also emphasizing practical steps, such as enabling «Do Not Disturb» mode and physically separating drivers from their devices.

«Distracted driving is a serious public health threat and particularly concerning among young drivers,» Robbins said. «Driving distracted doesn’t just put the driver at risk of injury or death, it puts everyone else on the road in danger of an accident.»

What this means for parents and educators

The researchers say their findings can help guide educators and parents in developing more persuasive messaging about the dangers of distracted driving. One of the recommendations is that adults need to counter teens’ beliefs that phone use while driving is productive or harmless.

While the study’s qualitative component was limited by a small and non-urban sample, the authors believe the 38-question survey they developed can be used more broadly to assess beliefs, behaviors and the effectiveness of future safety efforts.