How far are we from nanobots?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nA nano-scale lift that can raise itself 0.7 nanometers above a surface and an artificial muscle were designed in the years 2004 and 2005 respectively. The developments increased by leaps and bounds and Fraser, with the help of others developed a rotaxane-based computer chip with a 20kB memory capacity. Sauvage also went on to explore opportunities using rotaxane as the core molecular complex and in 2000, his research group managed to string two looped molecules together forming an elastic structure similar to the filaments of human muscle.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nIn simultaneous efforts to build molecular motors, Feringa used the idea of added energy to create a molecular rotor blade that would spin in only one direction. After overcoming the problem of basic random movements of molecules, he worked on the speed and by 2014, he had a motor that could spin at 12000 revolutions in a second. He used these motors to spin a glass cylinder 10,000 times bigger than the motors. His team constructed a ‘nano-car’ by linking several motors and axles.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nWith the radical developments made in this field, it is important to understand the dynamics of these nano-sized motors or machines. Since molecular machines find a huge scope of application in medical and biological scenarios, it is important to note that a certain functions can be linked to certain characteristic of some complexes in particular. Linear motor proteins find a pivotal role in many biological processes including muscle contraction, intracellular transport and signal transduction. <\/span><\/p>\nHowever, proteins replicating unidirectional rotary motors find use in synthesis and hydrolysis of ATP. These observations have been extended to the artificially created molecular machines to construct industry-grade sensors, actuators and transporters. To construct multicomponent mechanical machines, it is required to combine mechanical motions of different units, for instance the rotary motion of one part when coupled with the linear motion of another creates the molecular elevator.<\/span><\/p>\nAre we entering a new era of technological revolution?<\/span><\/h2>\nWhen it comes to biological motors, a key disadvantage of their application ex vivo lies in their inherent instability and downsides in the environmental conditions they operate in. It is a known fact that nature is capable of maintaining and repairing damaged molecular systems on its own. Hence, to integrate such complex repair mechanisms would be a challenge for the current researchers in nanotechnology. On the positive side, synthetic systems have a higher tolerance towards more diverse range of conditions than their biological counterparts, thus offering considerable advantages in the development of complex nanomachinery. <\/span><\/p>\nWhile designing molecular machines, paramount importance should be given to the design such that the motion at a microscopic level can be translated to ‘visible’ motion at a macroscopic level. To translate nanoscopic movement to macroscopic levels, several units of these tiny molecular motors must be able to work cooperatively. A major difficulty in operating molecular machines lies in controlling their directionality. It is important to find a balance between the random Brownian movement of microscopic molecules and the controllable Newtonian motion at a macroscopic level.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nThe discovery of ‘molecular machines’ has been compared to significant game changers like the invention of the wheel, invention of the flying machine by the Wright brothers and invention of the first crude electric motor. Molecular machines might just be ushering us into an era of unprecedented technological revolution. The design of molecular machines heralds endless opportunities in industrial, scientific and theoretical innovations. <\/span><\/p>\nAlthough researchers working in this field have already built knots, shuttles, rotors, switches and chains at a microscopic level, a car powered by a molecular engine is still a distant dream, of course. Many working in the field speculate that molecular machines could find significant application in computing, novel materials, and energy storage. To quote Stoddart, ‘We\u2019re on a very early part of a very steep learning curve. Chemistry is a fundamental science and it needs some space in which to develop the fundamentals. It\u2019s going to be a slow process and it may take decades to develop the field to a stage where it\u2019s applied to whatever the technology of the day is, but then suddenly it will take off, and people will see what all that fundamental development can lead to.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Machines lace almost all social, political cultural and economic issues currently being discussed. Why, you ask? Clearly, because we live in a world that has all its modern economies and demographic trends pivoting around machines and factories at all scales. We have reached the stage in the evolution of our civilization where we cannot fathom a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[175],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36855,"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25246\/revisions\/36855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}