Keynote:
Soft Machines: What Nanotechnology Can Learn From Biology
Richard Jones
Dept of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, UK
We can now manipulate matter at the level of individual atoms and molecules,
and we are beginning to see some of the results of this nanotechnology in the
form of useful products. But the most sophisticated results of nanotechnology -
working machines, devices and systems made on the molecular scale - have yet to
be constructed. If such machines can be made, they will undoubtedly make
possible great advances in medicine, energy and information technology, but
what kind of engineering principles will they be based on? Our natural tendency
is to assume that nanoscale machines will operate on the same principles as
human-scale engineering, but physics looks different on the nanoscale in ways
that will make this approach very difficult. The most sophisticated nanoscale
machines and devices we know about now are the sub-cellular machines, made of
natural polymers such as proteins and nucleic acids, which underpin all the
functions of living things, including energy conversion and information
processing. This natural nanotechnology is based on quite different design
principles to the principles we learn in macroscopic engineering. The
components of the machines are soft and floppy, and the way they works relies
on features of the physics of the nanoscale - like Brownian motion and strong
surface forces - which have no analogue at the macroscale. It follows that, in
designing synthetic nanoscale machines to handle energy and process
information, we should learn from the way nature exploits the special physics
of the nanoscale, using design principles such as self-assembly and
macromolecular conformational change. In our laboratory we are attempting to
use design principles analogous to those used by biology (albeit in a very
crude way) to make synthetic systems capable of converting chemical energy
directly to mechanical energy, and to make nanoscale particles capable of
autonomous motion.
Biography
Richard Jones is Professor of Physics at the University of Sheffield. His
first degree and PhD in Physics both come from Cambridge University, and
following postdoctoral work at Cornell University, U.S.A., he was a lecturer at
the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. In 1998 he moved to the
University of Sheffield, and in 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society. He is an experimental polymer physicist who specialises in
elucidating the nanoscale structure and properties of polymers and biological
macromolecules at interfaces. In his current research, he aims to understand
how to exploit the self-assembling properties of polymers to make cheap and
efficient plastic electronic devices, and how to use shape change in
macromolecules to create entirely synthetic molecular motors, valves and other
components of a polymer-based soft nanotechnology.
Richard Jones was the co-author of a report published by the UK's Economic and
Social Research Council, The Social and Economic Challenges of Nanotechnology
(2003). He chaired the Nanotechnology Engagement Group, a body set up by UK
Government to support the development of best practice in public engagement
around nanotechnologies, and to ensure that public engagement feeds into policy
and decision-making, and is the Senior Strategic Advisor for Nanotechnology for
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the lead government
funding body for nanotechnology in the UK.
He is the author of more than 110 research papers, and three books, the most
recent of which is Soft Machines: nanotechnology and life, published by Oxford
University Press in 2004.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/physics/contacts/richard-jones.html
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