This Is The Smallest Man Made Flying Object Ever Made - Jalopnik

Engineers from Northwestern University have created tiny flying microchips, which they say can be used to track populations, air pollution and the presence of airborne diseases.

“Our goal was to add winged flight to small-scale electronic systems, with the idea that these capabilities would allow us to distribute highly functional, miniaturized electronic devices to sense the environment for contamination monitoring, population surveillance or disease tracking,” said John A Rogers, a faculty expert at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The electronic components include a power source that can harvest ambient energy, memory for storage and an antenna to transfer data to a smart phone, tablet or computer.

The devices could be used to monitor the environmental impact of chemical spills, or track levels of air pollution at different altitudes.