{"id":12278,"date":"2022-11-03T16:09:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T23:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=12278"},"modified":"2022-12-02T18:20:03","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T01:20:03","slug":"super-mini-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2022\/11\/03\/super-mini-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"Super-mini Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from WIRED<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sci-Fi Dream of a \u2018Molecular Computer\u2019 Is Getting More Real<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Chemists have long conceptualized tiny machines that could fabricate drugs, plastics, and other polymers that are hard to build with bigger tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by MAX G. LEVY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Turing
PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

DAVID LEIGH DREAMS of building a small machine. Really<\/em> small. Something minuscule. Or more like \u2026 molecule<\/em>. \u201cChemists like me have been working on trying to turn molecules into machines for about 25 years now,\u201d says Leigh, an organic chemist from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. \u201cAnd of course, it’s all baby steps. You’re building on all those that went before you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1936, English mathematician Alan Turing imagined an autonomous machine capable of carrying out any precisely coded algorithm. The hypothetical machine would read a strip of tape dotted with symbols that, when interpreted sequentially, would instruct the machine to act. It might transcribe, translate, or compute\u2014turning code into a message, or a math problem into an answer. The Turing machine was a prophetic vision of modern computers. While your laptop doesn\u2019t rely on tape to run programs, the philosophy behind it is the same. \u201cThat laid the foundation for modern computing,\u201d says Leigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leigh now believes that tiny molecular versions of the Turing machine could assemble what we struggle to build in the organic realm, like new drugs and plastics with traits so enhanced and precise that they\u2019re out of reach for current tools. And he\u2019s confident that he can do it. \u201cIt’s absolutely clear that it’s possible,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause there already is this working example called biology.\u201d Nature has given every life-form its version of the Turing machine: ribosomes, cellular structures that slide down sequences of mRNA to churn out proteins one amino acid at a time. No life on earth can function without them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading in WIRED<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from WIRED The Sci-Fi Dream of a \u2018Molecular Computer\u2019 Is Getting More Real Chemists have long conceptualized tiny machines that could fabricate drugs, plastics, and other polymers that are hard to build with bigger tools. by MAX G. LEVY DAVID LEIGH DREAMS of building a small machine. Really small. Something minuscule. Or more like \u2026 molecule. \u201cChemists like me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}