Self-Assembly: The Science of Things That Put Themselves Together
THE TRANSFORMERS NOT AS FAR-FETCHED AS YOU THINK (Self-Assembly, the science of things that put themselves together.) Self-Assembly is a sub-field of Nanotechnology, as it is about inducing change at the molecular level to produce desired structures. Things that put themselves together are already a reality on a small scale. In the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT, there are fascinating examples of self-assembly. Here is a link to a set of videos from Ted.com http://blog.ted.com/2013/04/04/see-self-assembly-and-4d-printing-in-action/ featuring Skylar Tibbits of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT. Like many of Mankind's inventions, Self-Assembly was inspired by Mother Nature. The engineered self-assembling systems we have, were constructed based on the same principles and forces that drive self-assembly in Nature. There is nothing magical about self-assembly. When the right conditions exist, molecules can self-assemble.Self-assembly is when molecules form bonds according to a set ...
