The first proposal of a path from then current technology to the ability to fabricate complex materials and devices by placing the atoms where you want them was made by Richard Feynman in 1959: “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom“, but see also this series “Feynman Path to Nanotechnology“. The second proposal to achieve… Continue reading Unrelated de novo enzyme replaces essential enzyme in cell
Protein design has been one of the major paths from current fabrication technology toward the goal of general purpose, high-throughput atomically precise manufacturing since Foresight co-founder Eric Drexler proposed it in 1981. It also produced some of the earliest promising results. Although de novo protein design was at first slow, progress has accelerated since David… Continue reading Design of hyperstable constrained peptides
The Foresight Institute was founded in 1986 on a vision presented by Eric Drexler in which the ultimate manufacturing technology uses a machine termed a nanofactory or nanofabricator to provide atom-by-atom control of the manufacturing process for complex objects, both large and small. Although initially controversial, this vision has been increasingly accepted over the past… Continue reading Changing the world with a nanofabricator that could make anything
If the above picture reminds you of something like it some 27 years ago when physicists announced a nanostructure built atom-by-atom, then it is important to recognize there are multiple crucial differences between the above 2014 image of a Swiss cross formed from 20 precisely placed bromine atoms and the 1990 image of the IBM… Continue reading Building atom-by-atom on insulator at room temperature
Since winning the 2007 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, Theory category, Professor David Leigh FRS FRSE FRSC MAE, and since 2012 at the University of Manchester, has continued to achieve major milestones on the road to complex systems of molecular machinery. Contributions we have recently cited here: First direct measurement of force generated by… Continue reading Molecular robot builds four types of molecules
A review from the group leading recent rapid progress in de novo protein design describes the successes, identifies the remaining challenges, and heralds the advance “from the Stone Age to the Iron Age” in protein design.
Ten designs spanning three types of icosahedral architectures produce atomically precise multi-megadalton protein cages to deliver biological cargo or serve as scaffolds for organizing various molecular functions.
A new funding opportunity from the Advanced Manufacturing Office, U.S. Department of Energy, incudes a subtopic on Atomically Precise Manufacturing
Longtime Foresight member Dave Forrest is leading DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office in advocating atomically precise manufacturing to transform the U.S. manufacturing base.
Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, winner of 2007 Foresight Feynman Prize for Experiment, shares the 2016 Chemistry Nobel for the design and synthesis of molecular machines.
