Comments on: The protein engineering path to molecular manufacturing http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3792 examining transformative technology Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:23:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Jay Dugger http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3792#comment-867292 Jay Dugger Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:26:43 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3792#comment-867292 Welcome back to Nanodot, C.P.. Welcome back to Nanodot, C.P..

]]> By: James A. Donald http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3792#comment-867278 James A. Donald Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:41:01 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=3792#comment-867278 We know proteins work. We do not know clockwork will work down to to molecular sizes, and attempts to scale it down to microscopic sizes have failed miserably due. It is often said that at the molecular scale, there is no such thing as friction - but there is no such thing as lubrication either. Proteins get around this by being soft and elastic, so that brownian motion allows the moving parts of protein machinery to caterpillar past each other. However it is extremely difficult for humans to design and predict such machinery, machinery that works because it has a large number of degrees of freedom. We know proteins work. We do not know clockwork will work down to to molecular sizes, and attempts to scale it down to microscopic sizes have failed miserably due.

It is often said that at the molecular scale, there is no such thing as friction – but there is no such thing as lubrication either. Proteins get around this by being soft and elastic, so that brownian motion allows the moving parts of protein machinery to caterpillar past each other.

However it is extremely difficult for humans to design and predict such machinery, machinery that works because it has a large number of degrees of freedom.

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