Progress Towards Understanding And Controlling Molecular Motion - Polidicks

[QUOTE] [IMG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5wLU11y7DhE/TZ-Q_a-qUkI/AAAAAAAALBs/W7dQVOAnreQ/s1600/molecularmotioncontrol.jpg[/IMG] The mechanism of molecular motion changes as the environment changes; in this case, due to competition from free receptors (blue) in solution Controlling how molecules move on surfaces could be the key to more potent drugs that block the attachment of viruses to cells, and will also speed development of new materials for electronics and energy applications. Tyndall National Institute, UCC researcher Dr. Thompson performed computer simulations that enabled a greater understanding of how two-legged molecules move along patterned surfaces, in a kind of molecular hopscotch. [QUOTE]idespread industrial uptake of nanotechnology requires cheap, easy and robust solutions that allow manipulation of matter at the smallest scales and so a key enabling feature will be the ability to move material around molecule by molecule. One of the major difficulties is the very different physics that operates at the scale of atoms and molecules; water, for example, feels more like treacle to a molecule, and molecules tend to huddle and stick together due to microscopic forces between their atoms. Dr. Thompson explains: "The experiments performed by the group at Twente were very elegant. They involved making two-legged molecules and using a fluorescence microscope to watch how they move along a wet surface. The molecules are hydrophobic, meaning they don't like water, and the surface was pockmarked with hydrophobic cavities so a weak glueing interaction, based on a mutual dislike of water, drives the interaction between the molecules and the surface. While the energetics of this type of interaction was worked out over a decade ago by George Whitesides's group at Harvard, it's usefulness for materials development was limited because little was known until now on the paths that the molecules take". Because the molecules have multiple legs, they display a surprisingly rich behaviour at the surface, beyond simply attaching/detaching, with Dr. Thompson's computer simulations complementing the experiments and showing the different mechanisms by which the molecules move. The motion switches from walking to hopping to flying, as the environment changes. Dr. Thompson continues: "Access to high performance computing facilities enabled us to model the different pathways and aid interpretation of the microscopy results. We ran most of the simulations on our own Science Foundation Ireland-supported computing clusters at Tyndall, and also did a few larger-scale calculations at the Irish Center for High End Computing. It's an exciting time for research as experiments and simulations are finally on the same page; the experiments can finally drill down far enough to see molecule-scale features while advances in computing mean we can routinely model systems composed of hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of atoms".[/QUOTE] Nature Chemistry - Gradient-driven motion of multivalent ligand molecules along a surface functionalized with multiple receptors [QUOTE]The kinetics of multivalent (multisite) interactions at interfaces is poorly understood, despite its fundamental importance for molecular or biomolecular motion and molecular recognition events at biological interfaces. Here, we use fluorescence microscopy to monitor the spreading of mono-, di- and trivalent ligand molecules on a receptor-functionalized surface, and perform multiscale computer simulations to understand the surface diffusion mechanisms. Analogous to chemotaxis, we found that the spreading is directional (along a developing gradient of vacant receptor sites) and is strongly dependent on ligand valency and concentration of a competing monovalent receptor in solution. We identify multiple surface diffusion mechanisms, which we call walking, hopping and flying. The study shows that the interfacial behaviour of multivalent systems is much more complex than that of monovalent ones.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5uSduVbhn1c/TZ-SMiKXQgI/AAAAAAAALBw/urxpqYxcd9M/s1600/molecularmotion1.jpg[/IMG] Representative structure from the molecular dynamics simulations, showing a planar view of the model used to describe the interaction of the GII divalent molecule with the CD-functionalized surface. Water molecules and hydrogen atoms are omitted for clarity. The central orthorhombic unit cell is marked by the black rhombus; expansion with periodic boundary conditions provides the extended hexagonally-packed CD-functionalized surface. The GII molecule is colored blue with Ad anchors shown as spheres and the remaining atoms shown as sticks. The oxygens of the OH groups at the entrance to the CD cavities are shown as red spheres with the remaining atoms shown as brown sticks. The underlying linkers and substrate, arbitrarily set in the simulations to alkanethioether chains and Au(111), are shown as brown sticks and gold spheres. Surface binding sites are labelled in the central unit cell, with Hs1 and Hs2 denoting respectively the CD site binding GII group Ad1 and Ad2. The remaining two uncomplexed surface sites are labelled Hs-free. The snapshot shows the monovalent GII(Hs)1 complex formed after releasing Ad1 from site Hs1. [/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/progress-towards-understanding.html[/url]

My teacher will love this.

what does this mean?

Atoms, molecyles, cells, and whatever fondling with them. We got the pieces of the puzzle, it's just a matter of time before these mad scientists actually build up something out of them. And THAT I would truly call God's work.

Call me once we break 2nd law of thermodynamics.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;29059353]Call me once we break 2nd law of thermodynamics.[/QUOTE] Why?

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;29059371]Why?[/QUOTE] Because that will be end to all our energy problems.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;29065381]Because that will be end to all our energy problems.[/QUOTE] This is one of those "why post?" situations

[QUOTE=s0beit;29065496]This is one of those "why post?" situations[/QUOTE] I was asked, I answer. It's as simple as that.

Screw the second law, we'll just take energy instead. All we need to do is find a way to make heat energy useful for power generation and then we can safely and comfortably cock slap everything in the universe.

[QUOTE=bravehat;29067175]Screw the second law, we'll just take energy instead. All we need to do is find a way to make heat energy useful for power generation and then we can safely and comfortably cock slap everything in the universe.[/QUOTE] Pretty much this. Beat entropy, as a race ascend to godhood.

We could do that just now, there's enough energy in the universe that for practical purposes it could be treated as infinite.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;29067278]Pretty much this. Beat entropy, as a race ascend to godhood.[/QUOTE] Without entropy we wouldn't be here.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;29067278]Pretty much this. Beat entropy, as a race ascend to godhood.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Beat entropy[/QUOTE]

Break second thermodynamic law => beat entropy. That was my whole point. What is it to not to understand. [editline]9th April 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Rct33;29068001]Without entropy we wouldn't be here.[/QUOTE] Without trees and vegetation generally wouldn't be here either, yet we don't hesitate to chop them down.

That has nothing to do with molecular nano.

At the moment it is only banks who can create something out of nothing, i.e. Money. Soon all of us will be able to create everything out of nothing.

[QUOTE=Beafman;29084086]At the moment it is only banks who can create something out of nothing, i.e. Money. Soon all of us will be able to create everything out of nothing.[/QUOTE] Impossible, it just can't happen, it requires energy, therefore there's something, and even then all you're doing is converting shit.

[QUOTE=bravehat;29084105]Impossible, it just can't happen, it requires energy, therefore there's something, and even then all you're doing is converting shit.[/QUOTE] Of course, it need energy. But still, creating mass out of pure energy would to most classify as "nothing" since it is not in a solid form, which most people won't think of as something real. In the end this won't matter since the universe end. But in the mean time, we will be what early humans thought of as gods.

We already are. And it's still not making something out of nothing, even then that's nigh on impossible without some crazy as fuck tech that we won't have for millenia.

the second law of thermodynamics is just an illusion, created and propagated by oil companies to stop free thinkers from freeing humanity from the oil companies' grasp

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;29059371]Why?[/QUOTE] So he can refer to the work of a bunch of individuals as "we" and take credit for something he had no hand in doing.

[QUOTE=nikola631;29059293]what does this mean?[/QUOTE] It means that perhaps we might better understand how certain molecules interact with certain surfaces.