Powering the Nanoworld
Robert F. Service
Devens Gust, a chemist at Arizona State University in Tempe, and a handful of colleagues have built tiny refineries that convert the energy in sunlight to chemical fuel to power nanomachines. The fuel in this case is adenosine triphosphate, the same energy-rich molecule that powers chemical reactions inside cells. At last August's meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C., Gust reported that he and his colleagues had collaborated with other groups to run their protein-based molecular machines on little more than sunlight.