Europe ahead on molecular machines and nanorobotics?

Keep an eye on BIOMACH, a multi-year project funded by the EU: "The primary scientific objective is to achieve scientific prominence in the field of design and handling of nano-scaled molecular machines." They exploit both natural molecular machines and artificial ones: "The synthetic-artificial approach relies on a bottom-up approach to build-up nano-scaled machines by the assembly of simple synthetic bricks. Cutting-edge expertise in supramolecular self-assembly and self-organisation techniques is mandatory to steer the construction process and to control functionality of such de novo designed nanometer scale molecule engines." The long-term goal? Nanorobots, of course.