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	<title>Comments on: What can scaling laws tell us about nanomachines?</title>
	<atom:link href="http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/</link>
	<description>The Trajectory of Technology</description>
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		<title>By: Eric Drexler</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1988</link>
		<dc:creator>Eric Drexler</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:36:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1988</guid>
		<description>@ Kevembuangga — Yes, it’s important not to overgeneralize. As your comment suggests, biological nanomachines are radically different from scaled-down versions of macroscopic machines, and the motion-related scaling laws above don’t link them in any useful way. I’ve blogged about biological machinery with videos and discussion &lt;a href=&quot;http://metamodern.com/2009/07/16/4435/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://metamodern.com/2009/01/30/productive-nanosystems-movies/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://metamodern.com/2009/01/12/molecular-machine-assembly-the-movie/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.

Nanomachines that &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; resemble scaled-down versions of macroscopic machines can’t be fabricated using today’s laboratory techniques, but they can be simulated with good accuracy using molecular dynamics methods. The results fit the scaling laws quite well (high frequency motions, enormous power densities, &lt;em&gt;etc.&lt;/em&gt;).

There is a naive mythology that says that machines of this sort are somehow inconsistent with biology, when they are in fact merely different. Regarding the significance of that difference, it’s important to keep in mind that cars and aircraft don’t closely resemble horses and birds, and outperform them as measured by several metrics of practical importance.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>@ Kevembuangga — Yes, it’s important not to overgeneralize. As your comment suggests, biological nanomachines are radically different from scaled-down versions of macroscopic machines, and the motion-related scaling laws above don’t link them in any useful way. I’ve blogged about biological machinery with videos and discussion <a href="http://metamodern.com/2009/07/16/4435/" rel="nofollow">here</a>, <a href="http://metamodern.com/2009/01/30/productive-nanosystems-movies/" rel="nofollow">here</a>, and <a href="http://metamodern.com/2009/01/12/molecular-machine-assembly-the-movie/" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>
<p>Nanomachines that <em>do</em> resemble scaled-down versions of macroscopic machines can’t be fabricated using today’s laboratory techniques, but they can be simulated with good accuracy using molecular dynamics methods. The results fit the scaling laws quite well (high frequency motions, enormous power densities, <em>etc.</em>).</p>
<p>There is a naive mythology that says that machines of this sort are somehow inconsistent with biology, when they are in fact merely different. Regarding the significance of that difference, it’s important to keep in mind that cars and aircraft don’t closely resemble horses and birds, and outperform them as measured by several metrics of practical importance.</p>
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		<title>By: Kevembuangga</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1971</link>
		<dc:creator>Kevembuangga</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:11:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1971</guid>
		<description>oops screwed submit...
Well… nanomachines DO exist but they look &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fOXt4MrOM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;nothing like&lt;/a&gt; cogs, wheels or motors.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>oops screwed submit&#8230;<br />
Well… nanomachines DO exist but they look <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fOXt4MrOM" rel="nofollow">nothing like</a> cogs, wheels or motors.</p>
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		<title>By: Kevembuangga</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1970</link>
		<dc:creator>Kevembuangga</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:08:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1970</guid>
		<description>Well... nanomachines DO exist but they look &lt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fOXt4MrOM&amp;feature=related</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well&#8230; nanomachines DO exist but they look &lt;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fOXt4MrOM&#038;feature=related" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fOXt4MrOM&#038;feature=related</a></p>
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		<title>By: Miguel</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1944</link>
		<dc:creator>Miguel</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:54:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1944</guid>
		<description>[Comment removed. Please note the (selectively applied) policy: “criticize the idea, not the person.”]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[Comment removed. Please note the (selectively applied) policy: “criticize the idea, not the person.”]</p>
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		<title>By: Chris</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1943</link>
		<dc:creator>Chris</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:51:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1943</guid>
		<description>@miguel

What the hell does that even mean? And why are you writing like you&#039;re Macbeth on an internet forum?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>@miguel</p>
<p>What the hell does that even mean? And why are you writing like you&#8217;re Macbeth on an internet forum?</p>
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		<title>By: Miguel</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1941</link>
		<dc:creator>Miguel</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:51:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1941</guid>
		<description>[Comment removed. Please note the policy: “criticize the idea, not the person.”]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[Comment removed. Please note the policy: “criticize the idea, not the person.”]</p>
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		<title>By: Eric Drexler</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1937</link>
		<dc:creator>Eric Drexler</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:26:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1937</guid>
		<description>This is related to other scaling laws that result in a very short time scale for nanoscale Brownian motion. One can think of the molecules as (randomly) “exploring” their surroundings, with significant motions in nanoseconds, and large motions in microseconds. In this connection, you might like to see “&lt;a href=&quot;http://metamodern.com/2009/01/12/molecular-machine-assembly-the-movie/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Molecular Machine Assembly: The Movie&lt;/a&gt;”. Another relevant post is “&lt;a href=&quot;http://metamodern.com/2009/04/11/brownian-motors-and-mechanosynthesis/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Motors, Brownian Motors, and Brownian Mechanosynthesis&lt;/a&gt;”.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This is related to other scaling laws that result in a very short time scale for nanoscale Brownian motion. One can think of the molecules as (randomly) “exploring” their surroundings, with significant motions in nanoseconds, and large motions in microseconds. In this connection, you might like to see “<a href="http://metamodern.com/2009/01/12/molecular-machine-assembly-the-movie/" rel="nofollow">Molecular Machine Assembly: The Movie</a>”. Another relevant post is “<a href="http://metamodern.com/2009/04/11/brownian-motors-and-mechanosynthesis/" rel="nofollow">Motors, Brownian Motors, and Brownian Mechanosynthesis</a>”.</p>
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		<title>By: Doug</title>
		<link>http://metamodern.com/2009/10/14/what-can-scaling-laws-tell-us-about-nanomachines/comment-page-1/#comment-1935</link>
		<dc:creator>Doug</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:47:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://metamodern.com/?p=4984#comment-1935</guid>
		<description>Is this how DNA is able to find a matching base pair so quickly?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Is this how DNA is able to find a matching base pair so quickly?</p>
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