Tom Moore has set up the Machine Phase blog to chronicle his nanotechnology adventures designing molecular machines using the NanoEngineer-1 software from Nanorex. Read the whole thing starting on March 3 in the archives. Some of the images are still shots; others turn into animations when you click on them. It’s quite impressive considering that he reports starting with a six-year-old Toshiba laptop. About his March 18 animation of a small bearing:
If you click on the picture of this bearing and shaft it will open a new window with some animation of it turning. Right now I have a simulation of the pinion gear, middle gear and cnt bushing running on the other computer. I have a feeling this version will be more stable. When it’s finished I am thinking about posting an animated gif of it; however I am not sure if I made the simulation long enough to be interesting.
This is pretty technical stuff. But to laypeople and techies alike, it should be impressive that this kind of work can now be done at home. For highly impressive professional designs, see the Nanorex Gallery. —Christine
