Molecular Machines and Motors - Recent Advances and Perspectives

Until now, despite the amazing progress in the synthesis of complex molecular and supramolecular structures, nobody has succeeded in constructing a chemical system as sophisticated as a microbe or the spore of a mold. Nevertheless, in recent years a number of fascinating molecular-level machines and motors have been assembled, using natural building blocks such as DNA, and have been investigated by means of state-of-the-art techniques. The cutting-edge advances in this research field are nicely pictured in the chapters of the present volume. They come from world’s leading laboratories engaged in the development of molecular machines and are authored by some of the most respected scientists in the field. This volume shows, on the one hand, the level of ingenuity and technical capability reached in the construction of artificial nanomachines roughly two decades after their inception. On the other hand, it conveys the excitement about the enormous opportunities as well as the challenges this research area presents, as the interest of researchers is shifting from ensemble to single-molecule measurements and from homogeneous to heterogeneous environments. Indeed, as Feynman said in his previously mentioned talk “when we have some control of the arrangement of things on a molecular scale, we will get an enormously greater range of possible properties that substances can have.” Although the answer to the “when” question is not easy to find, there is no doubt that artificial molecular machines and motors will lead to a wide variety of applications which we cannot even envisage today.