®Looks to biology for examples of
existing nanoscale machines and self-assembly
®Ribosomal RNA
®Chloroplasts
®Mitochondrion
®Flagellar motors
®Emphasizes the difficulty of
constructing nanoscale machines with a molecular
assembler
®Friction and sticking (or “stiction”)
®Power source
®Pincers or jaws must be smaller
than the atoms to be manipulated
®Carbon atoms bond strongly to their
neighbors
®It would be an incredible feat to
outdesign evolution