Molecular Motors and Machines

Movement is one of life’s central attributes. Nature provides living systems with complex molecules called motor proteins, which work inside a cell like ordinary machines built for everyday needs. The development of civilization has always been strictly related to the design and construction of devices, from wheel to jet engine, capable of facilitating man movement and traveling. Nowadays, the miniaturization race leads scientists to investigate the possibility of designing and constructing motors and machines at the nanometer scale, i.e., at the molecular level. Chemists, by the nature of their discipline, are able to manipulate atoms and molecules and are therefore in the ideal position to develop bottom-up strategies for the construction of nanoscale devices.