From US News: A growing number of researchers are aiming to build nanodevices: circuits and structures measured in nanometers, or one billionth of a meter–the length of 10 hydrogen atoms lined up in a row. Nanodevices could form the heart of superdense computer chips, more efficient solar cells, and perhaps even tiny factories. And biology can help construct them. After all, life’s molecules are masters at building nanomachines, from the molecular motors in muscle to the tiny cellular power plants that extract energy from food.
The idea is not to mimic what nature already does but to exploit biology’s assembly skills to build new technologies.
That elegant idea is spawning a new research field with a cumbersome name–bionanotechnology–and growing support from government and industry. The payoff won’t come for years, but scientists already know they need a new approach to building tiny devices. So researchers are co-opting biology to design nanodevices that build themselves, from the bottom up. Nanocircuits might draw data from superdense memory devices built with the help of other biomolecules.
Biology could help make tomorrow’s devices greener as well as smaller. With viruses, we’re looking at new synthetic routes that are more environmentally friendly because they occur at lower temperatures and in solvents that are nontoxic.