© 2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle, Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2004.

4.5 Biomolecular-Directed Positional Parts Assembly (1994-present)

The ability to positionally assemble nanoscale building blocks or nanoparts into larger nanomachines of various kinds is a key capability that could enable nanomachine self-replication. Several proposals have been made to harness the self-organizing abilities of polynucleotides, proteins, and even whole artificial microbes or viruses for this purpose. (The authors are also preparing an entire book [1] on the subject of nonbiological positional assembly with a focus on diamond mechanosynthesis; positional manipulator arrays are briefly described in Section 5.7.)

Last updated on 1 August 2005