BIOLOGICAL MOTORS AND MOLECULAR MACHINES

Any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic. [Arthur C. Clarke] An utterly  appropriate quote used by Professor Leigh to end his magical talk Artificial motors and machines.

Presenting the latest developments in the field of nanotechnology and molecules with moving parts, Professor Leigh showed a video where small droplets containing engineered molecules which on exposure to ultraviolet light changed their position so dramatically that they could propel droplets across flat or slanted surfaces. These nanoshuttles could also be used in smart materials - changing their properties (e.g. volume, viscosity, conductivity) in response to stimulus. Through disappearing hankies, self assembling newspapers, metal rings caught in mid-air by ropes and literally reading my mind underlying principles of the technology were revealed.  Dr Klenerman of Cambridge University discussed a microscopy technique which delivers a molecular gaze into living cells as well as precision delivery of molecules onto cells. The technique of delivery was illustrated using florescence DNA for which his team design the Cambridge University’s crests at the width of a human hair (15µm).  The talk on Rotary motors in biology was held by Professor Sir John Walker who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1997 for his work on enzymes involved in ATP synthesis. He gave a technical overview of the workings of rotary nanomotors and how the generation of biological energy is dependant on the rotary mechanism of the ATP synthase.   The final talk discussed the future of molecular machines looking at recent discoveries and developing applications such as lab on a chip, microfluids, photofluidity, sensors, nanoelectromechanical switches and molecular machines.  Recent discoveries included optical tweezers where matter is held in suspension to offset effects of gravity and methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.