Can Nanotechnology Actually Lead to Nano-manufacturing?
We know that certain types of manufacturing can occur at the nanoscopic level because organic
molecules do exactly that.
Ribosomes are the nanometer sized construction machines in living cells that manufacture the
proteins used in living things on Earth. They do this by assembling amino acids, one by one, into
precisely determined linear sequences. These structures then fold up to form a protein.
Messenger RNA is the mechanical blueprint that specifies the order of amino acids. The
messenger RNA is determined by our DNA, which can be viewed as an computer program for
protein synthesis. Nanotechnology will generalize the ability of ribosomes so that other devices
may be constructed that don’t necessarily involve proteins. A copper wire with insulation, for
example, conducts electricity much more quickly than an organic nerve cell does but copper
wires cannot be constructed with the current ribosome designs which must deal only with organic
protein molecules.
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We know that certain types of manufacturing can occur at the nanoscopic level because organic
molecules do exactly that.
Ribosomes are the nanometer sized construction machines in living cells that manufacture the
proteins used in living things on Earth. They do this by assembling amino acids, one by one, into
precisely determined linear sequences. These structures then fold up to form a protein.
Messenger RNA is the mechanical blueprint that specifies the order of amino acids. The
messenger RNA is determined by our DNA, which can be viewed as an computer program for
protein synthesis. Nanotechnology will generalize the ability of ribosomes so that other devices
may be constructed that don’t necessarily involve proteins. A copper wire with insulation, for
example, conducts electricity much more quickly than an organic nerve cell does but copper
wires cannot be constructed with the current ribosome designs which must deal only with organic
protein molecules.
Next
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