#molecular machines

After realizing that we would eventually be able to build molecular machines that could arrange atoms to form virtually any pattern that we wanted, I saw that an awful lot of consequences followed from that. ↗

— K. Eric Drexler

#after #any #arrange #atoms #awful

In many biological structures proteins are simply components of larger molecular machines. ↗

— Michael Behe

#components #larger #machines #many #molecular

Protein engineering is a technology of molecular machines - of molecular machines that are part of replicators - and so it comes from an area that already raises some of the issues that nanotechnology will raise. ↗

— K. Eric Drexler

#area #comes #engineering #issues #machines

Manufacturing takes place in very large facilities. If you want to build a computer chip, you need a giant semiconductor fabrication facility. But nature can grow complex molecular machines using nothing more than a plant. ↗

— Ralph Merkle

#chip #complex #computer #fabrication #facilities

The other advantage is that in conventional manufacturing processes, it takes a long time for a factory to produce an amount of product equal to its own weight. With molecular machines, the time required would be something more like a minute. ↗

— K. Eric Drexler

#amount #conventional #equal #factory #like

I had been impressed by the fact that biological systems were based on molecular machines and that we were learning to design and build these sorts of things. ↗

— K. Eric Drexler

#been #biological #build #design #fact