Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa were jointly presented with this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Their research brings us closer to an era of nanomachines operating on the level of individual particles.
According to the official verdict of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Prize was awarded ‘for the design and synthesis of molecular machines’, which will probably be used in the development of new materials, detectors, and energy storage systems’. The term ‘molecular machines’ may sound incredibly futuristic, but in reality, we can create such machines even today. How do they work? We asked Prof. Piotr Kuśtrowski, Dean of the JU Faculty of Chemistry.
‘Is it possible recreate the mechanisms we know from larger devices such as engines or lifts on a molecular level? The research conducted by Jean-Pierre Sauvage from the University of Strasbourg, J. Fraser Stoddart from the Northwestern University, and Bernard L. Feringa from the University of Groningen shows us that proper design of chemical particles allows for precise control of its movement, making them “molecular machines”. This spectacular discovery may lead to the creation of nanomachines with particular, though as of yet hardly imaginable uses. For instance, molecular machines could be used as vessels transporting medicine inside the human organism or nanobots repairing damaged cells’.
The future is now!
Photograph: www.indiatvnews.com
Original text: www.nauka.uj.edu.pl
