Here on Nanodot we mentioned earlier a nanotechnology survey article titled Synthetic Molecular Motors and Mechanical Machines by Euan Kay, David Leigh, and Francesco Zerbetto. I have a paper copy now and have to admit that it is indeed worth $25, but that the 24-hour online access offered by the publisher at that price [...]

Richard Jones brings to our attention an amusing note on which to end the nanotechnology workweek: A pointer to a Technology Review blog in German by Niels Boeing which compares Drexler to Elvis and the UK’s Software Control of Matter project to the Beatles. Roughly translated: It’s intringuingly reminiscent of the history of pop music, ...

Richard Jones and commenters bring our attention to a number of enticing research papers on the use of catalysis and molecular motors to produce movement. One paper mentioned sounds particularly useful: an overview of progress on Synthetic Molecular Motors and Mechanical Machines. From the abstract: The widespread use of controlled ...

UK nanotech researcher David Leigh and team have published new work in Nature on a nanotechnology achievement — an information rachet, inspired by Maxwell’s Demon but not violating the Second Law — that sounds possibly important for molecular nanomachines. At rotaxane.net, you can read the full paper (pdf), or a more accessible ...

In addition to the experimental project described here yesterday, there are now two more posted on the U.K. Software Control of Matter Ideas Factory blog which are very likely to be funded — the first experimental, the second theoretical: Directed Reconfigurable Nanomachines We propose a scheme to revolutionise the synthesis of nanodevices, ...

Earlier we expressed enthusiasm for the UK Software Control of Matter project, and sure enough, they have already made progress toward setting themselves an ambitious, visionary goal which is expected to be funded: We propose to create a molecular machine that will build new materials under software control. The output of the machine will be ...

Christian Joachim, winner of Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology for both experiment and theory, continues his exciting molecular machine systems work with a recent publication authored by a German/French team in Nature Materials titled “A rack-and-pinion device at the molecular scale“. From the summary and conclusion: In this work, we ...

We’ve written before about the nanotechnology-based matter compiler project in the U.K, wishing we could participate. Richard Jones writes that now, we can: You may be interested to hear (and I’m hoping you might post about it on your blog) that we’ve now got a blog running associated with the “Software Control of ...

The useful website Nanowerk describes a new technique invented by researchers in Spain which should be useful in analyzing nanotechnology devices: Many protein molecules, such as those that process DNA, execute twisting motions, but researchers have only managed to measure the torques in a few cases. Often the random thermal jiggling of water ...

Medical News Today tells of an advance by teams at Rutgers, UCLA, and Institut Jacques Monod in Paris on figuring out how an important molecular machine in nature does its job. Some excerpts: Two papers by Ebright and collaborators in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Science define for the first time the mechanisms [...]