Grains the size of dust that can sense their environment, orient themselves and assemble in groups have been developed by a team of chemists who want to build miniature robots. The particles can identify and surround drops of oil or other pollutants in water, according to the researchers at the University of California, San Diego.

The next step in network-centric warfare will be the creation of networked sensing suites that tailor their observations to the adversary's rate of activity. These various sensors will concentrate on observing changes rather than on observing scenery.

Researchers working in a wide range of disciplines have created a series of tiny modules, complete with sensors and communications, with the aim of demonstrating 'smart dust'--self-sustaining network nodes measuring
millimeters or less per side.

A world of profoundly distributed computing is upon us, if researchers at the University of California at Berkeley are to be believed. They are developing 'smart dust' ? sensor-laden networked computer nodes that are just cubic millimetres in volume.

New manufacturing processes, wireless technology and intelligent software are making sensors and tags ever smaller, smarter and, most important, cheaper. As with microprocessors and lasers in earlier decades, the novelty is not that these sensors exist at all, but that they have suddenly become cheap enough to be used in ordinary everyday products.

Krisotfer Pister is leading a team of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley that is developing tiny, electronic devices called "smart dust," designed to capture mountains of information about their surroundings while literally floating on air. If the project is successful, clouds of smart dust could one day be used in an astonishing array of applications, from following enemy troop movements and hunting Scud missiles to detecting toxic chemicals in the environment and monitoring weather patterns around the globe.

Researchers at the University of California are developing a new breed of machines that will pack sensors, communications, and computing power into a dust-sized package. This 'Smart Dust' will be useful for monitoring weather conditions or spying.