[ExI] [tt] Molecular robot mimics life's protein-builder

[Adam A. Ford]

This paper I just stumbled on recently - the full paper is
here<http://www.catenane.net/pdfs/articles/Leigh%20Sequential%20Peptide%20Synthesis%20Science%202013.pdf>.
And on the Leigh Group website <http://www.catenane.net/> they state "Over
the last decade we have developed some of the first examples—all be they
primitive by biological standards—of functional synthetic molecular level
machines and motors"

>From someone who does not have a strong background in physics and chemistry
let alone nanotechnology, what they are doing at the Leigh
group<http://www.catenane.net/>looks interesting, but I wonder if my
enthusiasm for nanotech is coloring
my assessment.
Has anyone here spoken to David A. Leigh about this work?  Or done any
serious investigation?

What some people seem to take away from the Drexler/Smalley debate is that
molecular manufacturing is science fiction (might be possible in a few
centuries), and that molecular assemblers are fantasy (might be possible in
another universe or in VR).  More moderate skeptics may suggest that
molecular manufacturing beyond biology is folly. I get this impression from
the lecturers of the coursera 'Nanotechnology' MOOC.

Does Leigh's example of a synthetic molecular machine make one more
optimistic about the possibility of molecular manufacturing?

Does it support Drexler's vision of nanotechnology?

Are there any other research or engineering projects that show promise for
molecular manufacturing?

p.s. Apologies for all the questions, but this looks pretty interesting.

Kind regards,

Adam A. Ford
Director - Humanity+ Global, Director - Humanity+ Australia, Chair - Humanity+
@ Melbourne Summit
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On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 6:59 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 11:45:18AM -0800, spike wrote:
>
> > Gene, is not this an example of a nano-machine creating a covalent bond?
>
> Creating or breaking bond is not scale-dependant.
>
> > Is not a nano-machine creating a covalent bond exactly the mega-holy
> nano-grail the nay-saying crowd insists cannot be done?
>
> I don't recall that particular objection.
>
> Smalley mentioned the 'fat finger' problem, which
> is real for soft, floppy enzyme-like systems,
> but not relevant for rigid cages depositing
> highly reactive moieties, which work
> pretty much like today's numerically controlled
> rapid prototyping.
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