The lecture will look initially at 'how big is small?' and put into context the nanometre length scale, the scale of one billionth of a metre. We will go down in powers of 10 from the macro, to the micro to the nanoscale considering how a finger nail which we can see with our eyes relates to a cell we can see with an optical microscope, down to bacteria and viruses, and ultimately molecules and atoms that are too small to see with an optical microscope.
We will then explore what is special about the nanoscale and how Nature utilises it to make functioning biological systems, such as enzymes, that enable life, and ion channels in membranes that enable vision. We will then consider how engineers and physicists have manged to make transistors on silicon smaller and smaller by the so-called top-down approach, such that 10 000 transistors would fit across a hair on the back of your hand, and are now ubiquitous in all electronic devices ranging from your mobile phone and computer to the smart gadgets that you plug into your home driving the Internet of Things (IoT).
Finally, we will look at how the ingenuity of chemists has led to mimicking biological processes to create, via the so-called bottom-up approach, functioning molecular systems that mimic enzymes, as well as act as information storage and logic devices, leading us to think about molecular computers by the integration of the top-down and bottom-up approaches.
We will then explore what is special about the nanoscale and how Nature utilises it to make functioning biological systems, such as enzymes, that enable life, and ion channels in membranes that enable vision. We will then consider how engineers and physicists have manged to make transistors on silicon smaller and smaller by the so-called top-down approach, such that 10 000 transistors would fit across a hair on the back of your hand, and are now ubiquitous in all electronic devices ranging from your mobile phone and computer to the smart gadgets that you plug into your home driving the Internet of Things (IoT).
Finally, we will look at how the ingenuity of chemists has led to mimicking biological processes to create, via the so-called bottom-up approach, functioning molecular systems that mimic enzymes, as well as act as information storage and logic devices, leading us to think about molecular computers by the integration of the top-down and bottom-up approaches.
