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Science 7 October 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5745, pp. 63 - 64
DOI: 10.1126/science.1118765
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Perspectives

CHEMISTRY:
Inventing the Nanomolecular Wheel

Jay Siegel

The wheel is considered the canonical invention leading to all manner of mechanical devices. Rotating machinery is also being investigated at the nanoscale as researchers attempt to create molecular analogs of wheels and motors. But will these devices be merely imitations of macroscopic machines? In his Perspective, Siegel discusses results reported in the same issue by Fletcher et al. in which a four-stroke chemical nanoengine is reported. By a series of bond-breaking and bond-forming steps, a molecular structure is caused to undergo directed rotation. The development of structures of this kind, which are not merely miniaturized macromachines, may lead to other devices for executing controlled oscillatory motion.

The author is at the Organic Chemistry Institute, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstr. 190, Zürich CH-8006, Switzerland. E-mail: jss{at}oci.unizh.ch

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)